I experimented with several different versions but eventually arrived at a process that would be applied exclusively to the '59 Reissue Les Paul. During this period that I feel we established our vintage cherry sunburst as opposed to the production heritage cherry sunburst. And I accomplished an important objective and re-established the authentic TV yellow, both the single cutaway color and the later double cut 'banana yellow' colors. The current Gibson Custom Shops level of workmanship and attention to detail are totally unparalleled even in Gibsons storied history, and they have. It was during this time I took the opportunity to experiment with and reformulate and re-establish some of those classic old custom colors like Pelham Blue, Kerry Green, and Heather Poly.

By the 1930s, the company was also making flattop acoustic guitars, as well as one. Gibson invented archtop guitars by constructing the same type of carved, arched tops used on violins. in Kalamazoo, Michigan to make mandolin-family instruments. The ideas and projects that we were coming up with caught on especially as we showcased them at guitars shows and the orders started coming in and I mixed up other colors for custom ordered guitars. Orville Gibson founded the company in 1902 as The Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. I did a little experimental work on a Les Paul and gave it an more of a vintage style old-looking finish. It was the orders that came in which dictated our direction and most of what I did was finish (painting) work on special order guitars but we didn’t really have a whole lot of orders at that time. This area was where a lot of the fancy banjos and art guitars were being made, it was just an area in the shop sort of off to the side with me and a few other people and there was no well-defined direction or focus. Its purpose was to process and produce the one-of-a-kind and custom run orders requested by Gibson dealers. Says Murphy, “I was asked to join a small staff that became known as the 'Dealer Custom Shop'. In 1991, Murphy was asked to move into “custom work” as there was no custom work available to the public at that time. Let's get in the way-back machine for a piece from an interview with Tom Murphy published in early 1995, that describes an early version of the 'custom shop' that was just an area of the factory circa 1991:

Gibson custom shop history