The Gibson Murphy Lab is at the forefront of artificially aging guitars and master artisan Tom Murphy is at the head of it. The Lab has now moved into acoustics, but while some of their processes remain secret, Murphy is surprisingly open in his new interview with Andertons below when it comes to some of the tools he and his personally-trained team use to create authentic looking distressing on guitars.
Full-time with Gibson's Custom Shop since 2020, Murphy himself is not a fan of heavy relic'ing on his own guitars but the tactile appeal of a worn neck is hard to deny for anyone. But anyone can't just do this kind of work, and there's specific conditions the Murphy Lab works in – including the finish their guitars start with.
