“Peter Frampton messaged me, ‘I don’t understand, this sounds better than my ’39!’” How Gibson’s Murphy Lab acoustics fooled a seasoned guitar connoisseur

Gibson Murphy Lab acoustic SJ200 guitar.

Pick up a Gibson Murphy Lab guitar, and you probably won’t be the first one to be fooled into thinking that it’s genuinely vintage.

Masterminded by the godfather of guitar relic’ing, Tom Murphy, each Murphy Lab model is a testament to the team’s skill in expertly aging guitars. After first introducing the Murphy methodology to electric guitars, the firm later segued into the acoustic guitar space and continued to hoodwink even the most seasoned guitar connoisseurs.