Gibson Murphy Lab '59 Les Paul Standard Reissue Ultra Heavy Aged

review
GIBSON MURPHY LAB
78
GUITARIST AUGUST 2021
Finish
There’s little doubt, then, that the talking
point and the initial engagement with these
guitars is all to do with these aged finishes.
Our dot-neck ES-335 is finished in Ebony,
perhaps a strange choice when the model
is so well known in its Sunburst, Cherry
Red and Natural incarnations (there’s so far
no sunburst available). That said, this one
has an impressive ‘tuxedo’ vibe about it,
and its exceptionally dark-grained Indian
rosewood fingerboard looks great against
the black nitro lacquer. The ’59 Les Paul
on the other hand is Lemon Burst and
has, in this writer’s opinion, the perfect
colour and flaming – not fine, ruler-drawn
violin stripes or perfect, wide train lines
but slightly haphazard and in no way over
the top. In this faded finish with a hint of
cherry toner remaining, it looks incredibly
authentic. Our Junior is only available in
TV Yellow and there’s no doubt it looks
well gigged and pretty authentic; we take
a closer look at its finish in our direct
comparison with the real thing in the pages
following this review.
The ES-335 is more or less a new-looking
guitar but with large lacquer cracks running
across every surface. These are primary
GIBSON MURPHY LAB ’59 ES-335 REISSUE EBONY
ULTRA-LIGHT AGED
£5,099
MURPHY LAB ’57 LES PAUL JUNIOR SINGLE CUT
REISSUE TV YELLOW HEAVY AGED
£5,499
MURPHY LAB ’59 LES PAUL STANDARD REISSUE
LEMON BURST ULTRA-HEAVY AGED
£9,199
CONTACT Gibson WEB www.gibson.com
A guitar like the
ES-335 gives its best
when its voice is left
to breathe… vibrato
sounds very musical
Junior is heavy aged, while the ’59 Standard
gets the top-level ultra-heavy ageing. As
you’ll see in our Murphy Options box later
in the review, the heavier the ageing, the
higher the price. Time is money.
The Murphy Lab, of course, refers to
the aforementioned Tom Murphy. We’ve
reviewed instruments hand-finished and
aged by Murphy before (this reviewer owns
a ’57 Goldtop with Tom’s initials deftly
secreted among the lacquer cracks). And
you’ll learn all about how the Murphy Lab
works in our interview with Gibson’s brand
president, Cesar Gueikian, elsewhere in this
feature. As Cesar tells us, the Murphy Lab
receives ready-built instruments from the
Custom Shop, where they are then finished
and aged by the small team under Tom
Murphy’s guidance.
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