Although I like to complain to people about the “corksniffers” in the guitar collecting hobby, it’s disingenuous of me to do so. After all, these are people after my own heart. We aren’t musicians. To a musician, a guitar is a tool; they feel about their guitars the same way I feel about whatever race car I’m in on any given weekend. No, we are collectors. We venerate the thing, not the purpose.
Example:
If I had an extra four grand sitting around right now, I’d seriously think about this Murphy Aged Gibson R8. It’s got the right neck shape — the thick 1958 spec that works well with my oft-broken hands. It has the right top — heavy, deep ribbon flame, like crushed velvet. It’s Murphy aged, which means that the whole thing has been carefully fake-worn to look, feel, and play just like an old guitar. “Murphy aging” costs three or four thousand dollars on top of the Gibson MSRP. For example, my Gibson CC #1 retailed for $8999, I think, but the “Murphy Aged” one was $12,499. This guitar was amazingly cheap for the specs and the condition. I was seriously bout-it-bout-it, and then I read something in the ad that just made me laugh:
The guitar was “aged” by Tom Murphy, and has the look and feel of a well broken in guitar. The guitar is “as new” with no dings or dents except those added by Murphy. No mods/wear or issues.
No dings or dents except those added by Murphy. Now, if you look at the photos, you’ll see the guitar has been dinged up a bit. But not to worry — all of those dents are historically accurate dents added by Tom Murphy, famous guitar-aging specialist.
I’m envisioning the original owner standing in front of his music stand, getting ready to play the guitar, and someone asks him a question, and he turns and almost hits the headstock on the music stand. “Christ!” he exclaims, rubbing the end of the headstock like you would a sprained finger. “I almost damaged this guitar in a way that was not approved by Tom Murphy.”
This is what I want to do: I want to go to this man’s house with the money and ask him to examine the guitar with me prior to purchase. I’ll lovingly run my hands along the top, the neck, the binding. At every wear spot I’ll stop.
“Did Murphy make this dent?”
“Oh, yes,” he’ll reply.
“Are you sure? Because it looks like the kind of dent,” and here I’ll fix him with my steely glare, “that you would make.” Then after I’m done torturing someone who is almost certainly a very nice person, I’ll walk out with the guitar, trip on the front step, and drop it.
“Gibson R8 Murphy Aged,” my ad will read, “with additional authentic relic wear.”
It’s funny you mention that. Before I bought my very nice Nash S57 with “light relic” from a friend, I borrowed it from him. It did not come with a hard case, so I was carrying it from his practice space to the car. We stopped at the men’s room; with nowhere to put the guitar, I carefully slung it over my back. So there I am, taking a leak, when the strap pops off the strap button. The guitar crashes to the ground. I pick it up, we look it over…. And can’t tell where it had taken the hit.
So I’ve got a Nash S57 that has at least one ding or gouge that was not applied by Bill Nash…
Extra cash for a guitar that has been carefully beat up so the owner can pretend to be a long time musician? Right up there with fake patina on an older car. Or distressed furniture. The only ones who will be fooled, are the ones that want to be.
I can’t speak to the Murphy, and there’s no way I’d spend that kind of money on any guitar, but my lightly aged Nash S57 plays and feels better than any new guitar I’ve played. The neck in particular feels amazing.
So yes, for some, it is strictly the aesthetics. But for others, it’s actually the guitar. If my Nash had a perfect finish, I’d still have bought it. To me, it didn’t matter that it was made to look old. It was simply the best playing and sounding guitar I’d played to that point, and even now it’s the one I will never part with.
Bill Nash builds fantastic guitars, the fact that he makes them look old because some people like that doesn’t change that fact. And that’s why I bought one.
As I’m at least the 4th caretaker of a 1958 Les Paul custom (owned for nearly 40 years now), I appreciate that every nick, belt buckle scratch, or worn spot, was put on it in the playing or transport of it. All of it’s “blemishes” have been earned, not applied. I also own a custom made Ovation, that was a 16th birthday present (my dad worked for Kaman and had some friends in the guitar shop make it), that has acquired a nice patina over the last 41 years. Like anything else, try as you might, it will never stay perfect it you use it as intended. I have owned many others over the years, some new some used, and all had their own character.
I guess if someone wants a new “axe” with a worn look, that’s personal preference. I just prefer that new looks new. In the end tho, its the sound that matters (or in the case of the above 2 examples sentimental value) and if you like the sound, it’s a keeper.
WHAT? YOU HAVE A ’58 CUSTOM!
Sooooo jelly. Arrrgh.
Got lucky, right place at the right time and had the money. A friends neighbors son moved back from the left coast, needed money and had 2 things of value; the Les Paul and a 57 Chevy. I really wanted the 57, but he really wanted to keep it. So I got the Les Paul for what at the time was the low side of the value. Also included was a Park amp, of about 68 vintage. They are a fine sounding combo, that I have hung on to thru thick and thin, a vindictive ex wife, and numerous moves.
Interesting Jack ;
As mentioned it’s that ‘ patina ‘ thing cropping up again .
-Nate
Talk about a great job, if one could just get the name in the industry. This guy gets $4k to bang up an expensive musical instrument. I envision Murphy handing the guitars to his kids for a few hours and laughing all the way to the bank.
Proper relic jobs are extremely difficult to perform. Sure, anyone can beat and scratch on a guitar, but to really add “age” to a new guitar is an art. Takes years of practice and many tricks of the trade. Flash-freezing the body to get crazing. Using an Xacto to add cracks in the fretboard. Sanding and air-brushing the neck to get a mellow yellowing. Taping off circles that’ll preserve the pick guard’s original finish before aging the rest of it. Just the right amount of wear and scratching on the jack plate, thousands of blind stabs with the guitar cord.
A really talented relic artist/luthier can fool many an experienced eye. But a bad relic job is like a horrible tattoo. You pretty much have to live with the embarrassment for life, and you’ll never truly remedy the travesty.
So the stuff about a well played and broken-in instrument sounding better is just more guitar player voodoo? It’s about the look, not the sound?
When I look at a tool that is worn by use, whether it’s the fretboard of a guitar, the hardwood handle of a hammer that’s been polished by hands using it, or a computer keyboard with the A, S, E, and N keys whose letters have been erased with use I like to think of the human hands that wore it, the stories that were written, the songs that were played.
My late father worked with wood as a hobby. The back kennel room in each of his veterinary hospitals was also his woodshop. He had decent cabinetmaking skills and made some furniture but his passion was finding painted over antique furniture and refinishing the solid wood masterpieces under all that paint and gouging. Of course, a couple of pieces he restored might have been more valuable today if they were left unrestored, but most of the stuff he restored was, as mentioned, covered with layers of paint. The finished pieces, particularly the oak dining room table he refinished, were spectacular, sanded perfectly, with mirror smooth clear coats. He restored distressed furniture and I’m pretty sure he would have been put off by the notion of artificially distressing a nice piece to make it look like an antique.
The relic’d / aged neck on my Nash S57 is the best neck I’ve played…. It feels amazing. Part of it is the shape, obviously, but it’s also just the feel of it.
As to the east of the aging, yes, it makes the guitar look old, but it also means I don’t have to worry about dinging it or scratching it or what have you. And since I bought it used, it didn’t cost any more or less than a comparable Stratocaster with the usual dings and scratches.
There’s also the fact Bill Nash builds great guitars. The fact he makes them look old is, for me, beside the point.
Am I the only one struck by the irony of advertising an artificially aged guitar as having been kept in a smoke-free home? There are car collectors who like to have spare tires still filled with the original compressed air filled at the factory. I’d imagine that a guitar that smelled of the smoke filled Checkerboard lounge on Chicago’s south side might have its own appeal to guitar collectors.
I knew someone who had his guitar deliberately “smoked” by having a burning cig in the room during the finishing process.
Although all the dents in my cheap-ass racecar are authentic battle scars, I don’t think that they add value. Guitars must be different, I guess.
If your last name was Andretti, they might.
I have never understood relicing, tone woods on electrics, unobtaium hand wound by vessel virgin pickups or whole the lacquer vs poly tone thing. All strikes me as wankery, mysticism and marketing. As Jack says, to a working musican an instrument is a tool. Some are better, some are worse. The mind behind the machine makes the difference. In the hands of someone with talent a an old Mann, Raven, Tokai… through an old cheap tube amp, can sound like a high dollar setup. Do wish I’d kept all of the old gear that passed through my hands in the 70’s. Worth a fortune now and would have been ‘naturally’ reliced.
Tone is in the hands, you are correct. It’s all in the the attack speed, angle, etc.
But the instrument the player wants in those hands is an entirely personal matter. For some, the instrument, customized with the finish and pickups of choice, is the final piece of the puzzle.
And yes, tone woods make a difference in electrics. To non-musicians, the differences in body and neck and fretboard wood may hardly be audibly perceptible. But for those chasing that elusive tone in their heads - inside their own ears - these elements combine with the hands, pickups and amp for that “aha, I’ve found it” moment.
I am and always will be a lazy, low skill basher. No amount of high or low dollar flash will make up for the lack of patience, practice, effort and study on my part.
” Tools ” ~ yes they are indeed .
I am enjoying reading these replies , my tools are very different but I began assembling my tools in the 1960’s and have always strove (? striven ?) to buy the better quality ones no matter how old .
-Nate