In this video I’m hanging with you guys and walking through my 2024 R9 Murphy Lab Light Aged Les Paul in Southern Fade—what I loved about it right out of the gate, and why I ended up buying it. The big win for me was the neck: it’s got more shoulder and a way more comfortable transition from neck to board than a lot of modern Gibson reissues, which usually drive me nuts. It stayed in tune, the nut was cut perfectly, and it just felt like a stable, gig-ready instrument. Then I get into all the mods, because I basically gutted the guitar. I don’t like the current reissue pickups, pots/caps, or a lot of the “reissue” hardware—most of it is just off if you’re chasing actual vintage behavior. I dropped in patent number pickups, swapped to an original 60s ABR-1 with the wire (because I’m not trying to watch a saddle fly off on stage), used original late-50s/early-60s saddles, and even installed a 100% original 1957 wiring harness. I also put on original single line/single ring Kluson tuners to get as close as I can to a real ’59 Burst vibe—then I run it through my Kemper and show you how clear that neck pickup stays. After the gear talk, I share a few road stories: seeing Vince Neil at 12 years old and getting inspired to be a pro musician, a reality check about what crowds are sometimes really there for, and the whiplash of going from opening for Styx to playing a small Broadway cover gig at Rippy’s the same day. That’s the modern musician life—take the gigs, keep working, keep playing.