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Les Paul 58 Murphy aging


BlackArrow

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Hi everybody, I've recently purchased a beautiful Les Paul 58 True Historic Tom Murphy aged, brand new. I've a question and I hope someone could help me: I noticed that some of the scratches and indents over the bottom of the body - quiet deep - seem as they could lightly overpainted in a red gloss. Since I know that it's surely an original Gibson treatment, I'm only curious about the tecnique used by Murphy to age those beautiful guitars, and above all I wondered if Tom could arrive to the point to want recreate not only the normal appearance of sixty years of use through aging the wood, but also reproducing the temptative of some ideal owner to "hide " those indents and scratches painted them by himself.... It's pure fantasy or it could be the truth?... Thank you to everyone more expert than me that is so kind to answer.

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And I still cannot understand the point or the logic of doing any of it. I still regard it as criminal damage.

 

It wouldn't be my preference. My older guitars have been aged by my own playing them, on stage and off, for 30+ years. But, if someone else wants to pay to make their guitar look old, it's their money and their guitar. They can do as they want. They won't really fool knowledgeable people. But, if they have the money and thinks it looks cool, it's none of my business.

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And I still cannot understand the point or the logic of doing any of it. I still regard it as criminal damage.

Some folks pay highly talented modern-day painters to replicate a Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' painting accurate down to V.V.G.'s brushwork to stick on their wall.

Some folks have a Tom Murphy aged 'Pearly Gates'.

IMO the latter have better taste.

 

Pip.

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It wouldn't be my preference. My older guitars have been aged by my own playing them, on stage and off, for 30+ years. But, if someone else wants to pay to make their guitar look old, it's their money and their guitar. They can do as they want. They won't really fool knowledgeable people. But, if they have the money and thinks it looks cool, it's none of my business.

 

The guys who really know what they’re doing will fool anyone. I read a book about the original burst 58-60 LP a while back and in the book one of the experts says even he can never be 100% sure the guitars are authentic because of relicing and expert guitar makers who can replicate any detail on an old guitar.

 

And of course people can do what they want but it doesn’t make it any less fake or ridiculous. Especially the homemade “relic” jobs on Craigslist or Ebay. There’s a Fender Highway 1 Strat I was looking at on Reverb that was marked down because someone had “reliced” it. It looked like they just used a sander to take paint off in random spots, which of course looks retarded.

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Some folks pay highly talented modern-day painters to replicate a Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' painting accurate down to V.V.G.'s brushwork to stick on their wall.

Some folks have a Tom Murphy aged 'Pearly Gates'.

IMO the latter have better taste.

 

Pip.

 

I’ve seen them “fix” old valuable guitars that had damage and they “age” the repairs to match the rest of the guitar. Personally I’d rather a repair be left alone, it adds to a guitars character and uniqueness IMO. It also prevents anyone from trying to pass it off as “all original” down the line.

 

My 95 Classic is beat to hell and I did about 95% of it (my dad did the other 5) by playing it. Im proud of that. I wore a tiny sliver of the finish off where my arm rests and I played the dog crap out of that guitar for over 15 years.

 

I would never buy a “”reliced” guitar.

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Some folks pay highly talented modern-day painters to replicate a Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' painting accurate down to V.V.G.'s brushwork to stick on their wall.

Some folks have a Tom Murphy aged 'Pearly Gates'.

IMO the latter have better taste.

 

Pip.

 

I’ve never gotten wanting to own an exact replica of someone else’s guitar either. I mean, I think Steve Jones’ 1974 white LPC is the coolest looking guitar there ever was or will be, and I own a white LPC because of him, but I don’t want my guitar to be a copy of his. I want my guitar to be my guitar. But do many people try to replicate his down to the stickers, aged finish, no pickup covers, no pickguard etc etc etc.

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The Mexican Fender relics I've come across have been pretty dreadfully 'relic'd' - not only do they not look genuine, they also seem to have been done exactly the same as each other as though it is part of a machine job along a production line. Compared to my own beat up old guitars they look completely different. I have had the pleasure of trying an early-mid nineties John Cruz (sp?) heavy relic'd butterscotch early 50's custom shop Tele though, and it was really cool looking, a very different beast. I guess you pays for your beatings.

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I need some help. I bought a Brand New Gibson instrument and payed the 6k retail asking price....but there's dents and scratches all over it. Some setup guy named Murphy signed the card. Guess he was in a rush that day. Didn't take the time to realize the guitar was pretty smashed up, some cigarette burns in the headstock too. I didn't know the luthiers at Gibson were allowed to smoke while working. Who should I talk to about this?

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