Big Al
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2002
- Messages
- 14,545
No. That is simply not true at all. Being so close to the H.O.G I get to spend considerable time with their Gibsons stock. I have played hundreds over the years and have a pretty good understanding of the range and differences through the years. ALL of the Historics, True Historics, Custom Shop whatevers are made the same, in general for the same years. That is all True histories share spec's and build quality. Cosmetic aging is an option for those that desire such treatment for a variety of reasons. Reasons that in truth are cosmetic only. They look old, they appear to have wear. Claims of sonic superiority and magic wood and super duper selection of the mostest magicalicious tonalating bestest Les Pauls is pure fabrication, sometimes used to justify purchasing an aged guitar, rather than simply admitting you like the way it appears, it must now possess magical tonal properties and be better than non aged guitars, which are the same damn thing unaged.
Murphy aged guitars have more fabrication associated with how great and exceptional they are because Murphy was the originator of aged guitars at Gibson and attach great worth to instruments he personally does. If you like that kind of thing it is cool, and he makes them look a certain way. What he doesn't do is make them sound better or somehow get a special build better than the rest to age.
Playing one or two and making a general proclamation about the inherent quality of the same guitar aged or unpaged is foolish. Every True Historic, every single one, and there have been many, aged and unaged, that i have played was a wonderful playing and sounding musical instrument showing the same range of sounds you find with other models. R9's for instance show the same thing for guitars made in the same years. What I mean 1999's are all built the same and share the same quality of build, gloss or aged. Same for 2010 R6's for example. Wood varies and there is always a range of tonal spread from one to another. But you cannot predict a specific tonal effect, or know exactly how a guitar may sound until it has been built.
Murphy aged guitars have more fabrication associated with how great and exceptional they are because Murphy was the originator of aged guitars at Gibson and attach great worth to instruments he personally does. If you like that kind of thing it is cool, and he makes them look a certain way. What he doesn't do is make them sound better or somehow get a special build better than the rest to age.
Playing one or two and making a general proclamation about the inherent quality of the same guitar aged or unpaged is foolish. Every True Historic, every single one, and there have been many, aged and unaged, that i have played was a wonderful playing and sounding musical instrument showing the same range of sounds you find with other models. R9's for instance show the same thing for guitars made in the same years. What I mean 1999's are all built the same and share the same quality of build, gloss or aged. Same for 2010 R6's for example. Wood varies and there is always a range of tonal spread from one to another. But you cannot predict a specific tonal effect, or know exactly how a guitar may sound until it has been built.
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