With this website I’ve tried to provide two things ….. a window on the past for the MURPH guitar owner ( both current & former ) plus a permanent record of one man ( and his family’s ) bold endeavour to design and produce a low cost, quality line of musical instruments for the youth of America. They achieved that, but in the process fell victim to a powerful corporate giant …. a sort of David & Goliath story gone badly ….. where they were to become one more company crushed underfoot in the great guitar market share battles of the 1960's.

The Murph Guitar - a final? word

So, what was achieved in this short existence? Was Murphy Music Industries a failure?  Well - if we are talking strictly in business terms, it was .... had their venture commenced 10 years earlier before the market became so saturated or had they secured a major rock & roll endorsee the end result may well have been quite different and this website would have been quite unnecessary.

The Murphy family had a dream, to provide a quality guitar for the teenager of the time - and after all, it was the iconic, music filled 1960’s. They were in the midst of a decade of progress and one full of success stories - at a time when anyone with a good idea and the sheer dogged determination to make a go of it could hitch their wagon to the pop culture express and blaze a trail.

Now, 45 years on, the memories left in the minds of those who owned a Murph guitar are still good ones - it has truly left it’s unique mark in the history of American guitars. Rather than being a failure, it was in terms of personal achievement, a resounding success!

Hopefully we should now be able to say … “Yes, I DO know what a MURPH is!”


Dan McGonigal
Blaxland, Australia
January 2010