How Tom Murphy Restores And Ages Gibson's Most Expensive Guitars
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- Опубліковано 2 чер 2024
- Rhett and Zach kick off the new year with renewed commitment to an old habit: making a daily to-do list, or as Rhett calls it, “the shit list.” The guys debate the finer points of which stationary makes the best to-do list backdrop before they’re joined by Tom Murphy, the preeminent craftsman of guitar-aging and namesake of Gibson’s high-end Murphy Lab.
Murphy, who has been with Gibson for 25 years, takes Rhett and Zach back to the starting line, when he and his friends would buy, trade, mod, poke, and prod any guitars they could get their hands on-Murphy quips that his entire career is in part penance for an early botched attempt at refinishing a ’68 Les Paul. Murphy eventually found his niche in aging: “Who else is gonna take a razor blade and make a bunch of lines on a guitar they just refinished?”
Along the way, Murphy digs into the labor and pricing considerations with heavily aged instruments, including when a third-party guitar sale made him realize he had to raise his rates. His aging and restoration work involves balancing considerations of aesthetic, tone, and playability all at once, which he likens to “the spinning plates guy at the circus.” “Which one can you afford to let fall?” Murphy says. The magic of his work, he explains, is in accentuating the natural properties of the guitars: “Our finish doesn’t make them sound better, it lets them sound better.”
Murphy’s story involves soaring highs, like catching ZZ Top in a tiny club in Houston in the early ’70s, watching Billy Gibbons thrash the very guitar model he would later spend his days working on. But stick around to hear about the dramatic lows, too, like when he witnessed a guitar’s finish shatter before his eyes after a freezing, snowed-in night in Boulder, Colorado.
Murphy doesn’t have plans to retire at the moment, but he has one caveat: “I just don’t wanna be found slumped over a guitar,” he chuckles.
Big thanks to StewMac for sponsoring this episode. Head to stewmac.com/dippedintone to get 10% off!
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Hey guys my name is Tim, guitar is my favorite hobby, and I am a huge dipped in tone fan... Something about the chemistry.... And I always learn a lot and feel warm and fuzzy inside when I watch... Keep up the good work!
😅
Tim, you make me warm and fuzzy ❤️🤘🎸
You have a great taste in podcast there timmy.. you wouldnt be related to the guitar guy named tim pierce who goes on rhetts channel sometimes woulda ya????😅
Tim is one of the best to ever do it!
Tom has nailed the aging process and makes a great contribution to guitar
Gosh! What an honor! There are no words, other than THANK YOU! To hear Mr. Murphy discuss and share his experiences are priceless!
Brittle lacquer is not a secret. I worked in a paint store and I come from a long line of wood workers. It's an art form but Tom always makes me laugh when he acts like cracking lacquer is a top secret process. Lacquer stays tacky for a very long time but there are things you can add to make it set fast and if you lay it down before the wood swells, Bob's your uncle.
Yeah, and those razor cuts??? Everybody is freezing real lacquer nitro now. He didn't invent that. The whole Murphy Lab thing is kinda funny. I saw them. using a BB gun and shooting the guitar, all the dents are identical size. Some of them just look awful, like a high school did it in his garage. Just an excuse to charge outrageous prices for mediocre guitars. The replica builders are way ahead of this stuff.
@@SDPickupsmediocre? Really? Like aside from the finish, you feel they are mediocre at best? Wow 😂 and what replica builders? Banker? Who? Cause if there are better replicas, I’d honestly like to check them out. I have several custom shops and USA Gibson’s. Everyone of them are absolutely incredible. I also have several nice Epiphones, some are absolutely incredible, but not on the same level of my Gibson’s USA or CS.
Superb interview with Tom Murphy. Thank you!
Best interview- y’all let Tom just vent his love. PERFECT!🙌
Interesting interview. I'm torn personally. I've got a hand aged (razor blade checking) goldtop, and I've played several ML and did a deep dive review of one on the channel. In many cases, the temperature induced checking can look amazing BUT I do really appreciate the artisan skilled labor side of the hand checked instruments. So much skill to make those, much more than throwing into a freezer and whatever else they do. Either way both products to me are akin to "functional art".
Great interview and lots of cool things I didn't have a clue about. Congrats on 20,000 subs!
Tom does his side of this interview exactly the same with anyone who is interviewing him (like a script word for word so this is nothing new..) however the Dipped in Tone guys are involved this time so im all ears for this one!
One of my favorite podcast channels, love you guys! So ill listen to him again! 🙃
What a fun / funny guy Tom is. This was a blast to sit in on. Thanks!!!
A little tip for you....The Japanese made Elitists Les Pauls ALL have Brazilian boards on them. And YOU BET it makes a big difference. I have 7 of those guitars and never selling any of them. Long tenon neck joints too, they ring like a bell. I upgrade all the hardware with vintage correct materials, our Four Uncles ABR1 replica, the only one in the entire world that are identical materials, custom mixed alloys, all of it. That bridge makes any LP sing with notes that are just mystical in what comes out of it. These guitars are numerous and only around $1200. Grover tuners, real abalone inlays, bone nut. Gibson quit making them because the quality exceeded anything Gibson does, they were TOO GOOD.
Have an Elitist 335, just ordered a mint goldtop LP for $1275. Apparently, your bridges are much tougher to find.
It's "stationery" when dealing with notes that you write. "E" for envelopes :-)
Stationary when it's something not moving . Like a train at a station. :-)
I knew this and somehow never knew this at the same time
What a great guy. This was an excellent interview.
This is such a great episode - Tom is a jem!
He’s so down to earth and humble. I was expecting the opposite.
Great show today!
P.S. Rhett, ask Zack what camera he uses and get it. Your camera insisted on focusing on your mic instead of on your face :).
Did you guys get new cameras or lighting??? Really looks good now - looks Pro!
You should interview Wayne Henderson He’s an absolute treasure as Tom is! Great interview of such an approachable guy.
I built a kit guitar and chose to do a Nitro (spray can) finish on it. Other than being a long, tedious process, the fishish did not turn out like I expected, but it is getting some interesting checking that is kind f cool.
I'd love to have Tom see the aging on my '69 Goldtop...it was also left in a freezing trunk while on tour in the 70's.
(there's even vids of it on youtube back in '74...Tongue is the band, Paul Babbit lead guitarist.)
More interviews, you should change the name from dipped in tone to submerged in interviews😂, Just joking, you guys are awesome!
Fun interview. I checked the Amazon podcast and it sounds normal.
I have a 95 Historic 54 Gold top bought it new, its in all my videos.. Love hearing how it came to be
I have a ‘96 R4. Great guitar. Thought ‘96 was the first year.
Is yours heavy?
@chrisquinn9104 No its not crazy heavy. 9ish lbs I saw something that said 96 was the 1st year. But the same thing also said not everything was recorded correctly back then. Mine was bought in Nov of 95 a Christmas Present. The recipt says so. Maybe a lil cooler officially they weren't out til 96 I guess
@chrisquinn9104 I was just looking at the serial number again it begins with 4. And when I got it the guy told me it was a 40th anniversary of the 54 and the historics were brand new. But it was the next year when I got it and I always say 95 cuz nothing said anniversary. But its a 94 actually.
Aaron Draplin designed an incredible fuzz pedal, I grabbed one last year. Did Zach pick one up ? Have you seen them, it's a joint venture between Aaron Draplin and Hilbish Design. Very cool pedal.
You guys should also try Word notepads. They are awesome too. Same size profile.
A lightly aged Murphy Lab' Les Paul sells for $8,000.00 and they sell several hundred a week, That is a hell of a profit!
Tom Murphy's greatest strengths are his honesty and his modesty.
His bank account is not doing too bad either! A lightly aged Murphy Lab' Les Paul sells for $8,000.00 and they sell several hundred a week,
That is a hell of a profit!
What are those handheld mics?
Might have been a good idea to "Show" a couple of Gibbos
A few years ago I got a used Les Paul that was fairly new but thankfully the previous owner light Murphy labed it for me. 😂
Great Chat . I would like to ask Tom about the Hardware and Electronics . Most electronics like wire , pots , type of metals used in the newer guitars is source from cheap crap . Video's showing old Gibson pots insides vs newer pots show just how much more quality the old stuff was made with . It don't make any sense that with all this evolution in engineering we can't recreate a guitar that was built in 1959 ?.....These companies have torn apart the wood and glue aspects of the build but rarely do you see videos trying to pinpoint the same wire , metals etc . Whats also crazy is the instrument "1959" is what's popular . The music is now a 2nd thought .... I'm guilty . I will watch a band because of the gear . Music is becoming a bi product . We live in crazy times .
Gibson did not use "Hide glue" to attach the maple tops on the Burst guitars. They used PHENOL FORMALDEHYDE RESIN.
IF they are using Hide glue to glue the tops then they are not historically accurate.
You sound like you should be Tom’s successor apprentice
To this day, I still use the phrase “OOOOF” because of Aaron Draplin. For those that don’t know, it’s hard to explain. It’s an expression of being impressed by something intensely, and not much else quite says the same thing. “That Murphy Lab SG OOOOF”.
Funny when you take a guitar in to the shop for a trade in they reduce the value for damages in the finish lol,
Someday we won’t be able to tell which old guitars came that way and which “earned” the damage. I’m sure guitar center will always knock down the value, regardless
Some newer 2023 necks are still flaking randomly. It seems the body is fine but some necks are extremely brittle and just fall off after a couple of hours
Repairing an old guitar and matching the finish the old makes sense. Taking a brand new guitar and making it look old does not.
Now i want a beat up guitar. I never really understood the phenomenon until now. Now i get it.
Tell your friends please
I love my phone because I used to make to-do lists and promptly lose them. 😂
the MOST interesting thing about this interview is how everyone is trying sooo hard to avoid the word "relic" due to that particular term being "off brand",..LoL
Rhett is & lives as a "Low energy" kinda guy. & That's what enders him to live gigs where the artists don't want anyone to "Draw attention " to anyone but the featured artist. Brilliant ! Hey, Whatever pays the bills.
Tom is a treasure to the industry
Is that a bobble head sitting next to Tom?
Wasted an hour of my life for this lol. Loved it
Murphy Lab 🧪
Gibson MUST announce a bonkers expensive series of limited broken headstock guitars for April Fool’s Day. Gibson, are you listening??!! must!!
If you think the rocket design was bad, google my local park: Legacy Park Brambleton Virginia
Hey Ive got 2 of his guitars😂
I feel bad for the people that fall for the bullshit Murphy lab marketing hype. If you want an accurate vintage spec’d Gibson than send your guitar to “Historic Makeovers”. They use the actual methods that Gibson used in the 1950’s to finish their guitars. Much much higher quality than anything the “Murphy Lab” has ever produced.
Winter had a big effect on my guitars...3 truss asjustments, 4 fret dressing sessions, and that is just the 9-10 that are not in cases :/ and the tele I am building has yet to be put together...eventually :/...Thanks Zach and Rhett
It is good to know that men like him still exist.
whatever makes someone play guitar
Tom: "...I would ruin a guitar...". Goes on to make a very successful career ruining guitars. Play to your strengths, I guess.
These guitars are supposed to be the best you can possibly buy before Mr Murphy and his crew work on them ! Seems to me Gibson are taking lots of players for fools ! Why not just immerse the instruments in the vat of snake oil that Gibson obviously keep , that should age them !!!