Joe Bonamassa demos Gibson's Murphy Lab Les Paul, SG and ES-335 guitars

"The binding makes all the difference, it really does." Who better than Joe Bonamassa to put Gibson's Murphy Lab recreations through their paces?  a man who knows details matter with electric guitars. And he's impressed – especially by the authenticity of the binding and the neck profiles in the video above."

There's more high praise; the Murphy Lab aged '59 Les Paul reissue here is "by far" the closest he's seen to an original. He also reveals the vintage telltale sign he looks for called "the ping". 

And even if such things have little interest to you, watching Joe play is always a pleasure. As the man says, "What's not to like?"

For more on Murphy Lab models visit Gibson

More: Joe Bonamassa's top 5 tips for guitarists

Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.