Murphy Semi-Hollow Body

What makes an Open Architecture™ guitar special? The design allows us to build your guitar as a semi-hollowbody with your choice of top & back woods, or as a fully hollow body instrument with precision molded bodyshells supported by aircraft aluminum structural ribs. The advantages include unparalleled  accessibility to controls, placing the controls so they are easy to reach but never in the way. The design of our core has the advantages of a neck thru where the neck and all parts making up the string path are made as one unit for the best sound, resonance, sustain, & durability. We use maple for the neck and add a block of alder or soft maple to the resonance structure to soften the brightness of the maple. Most companies, even the high end ones, don’t build neck thrus because it is harder, and therefore more costly, to do. That means bolt on necks and glued set-necks are are the norm in the guitar industry, even in the high-end market. The manufacturers that do make neck-thrus generally offer it as an upgrade option. Master Craftsman Guitars only makes neck-thrus because quality of sound is our primary goal, each and every time. 

From our more manageable Short-Scale Basses that have a surprisingly firm low B string, to our award-winning Open Architecture™ Guitars, you will find the sound of each instrument is exquisite and the feel and weight of the guitar is a joy to work with.Thousands of hours of development and decades of experience go into Master Craftsman Guitars.

Master Craftsman Open Architecture™ guitars, developed over 3 years with 15,000 man-hours of design, development, and prototyping, feature two body styles, the Velvet and the Granite. All semi-hollow wood bodies are cored out prior to the top being glued for better resonance and lighter weight.

Each instrument is hand built from a central core, comprising the neck, fingerboard, and resonance structure. The neck incorporates a two-way truss rod for relief adjustment, and carbon fiber reinforcement to give the neck high strength yet allow the flexibility to enhance expressive playing. The body, whether one of our semi-hollow wood designs, or a fully hollow design, is permanently bonded to the core to make a uniquely resonant instrument. The strings run through the body & core, captured at the ball end by a brass block, exiting at the top through a high mass hardtail bridge, and  running through a custom fitted bone nut. The brass string block and metal scroll tip on the headstock work to contain the string vibrations within the guitar, giving the player a long-sustaining and musical resonance that inspires new musical ideas. 

Standard electronics consist of a pair of custom wound, coil split, humbucking pickups specially made for us by MJ’s custom pickups in Canada. The pickups have a PAF-level of output, and have been selected to complement the resonance of our guitars.  The signal from the pickups runs through a 5-way selector switch to access full series outputs of both pickups and split-coil outputs, adjustable with one master volume and one master tone control. All controls are conveniently located in the cavities between the core and body; easy to access but never in the way. Custom output level pickups and switching are available; let us know what you want in your custom build.

Also available is a Kahler tremolo system in place of the hardtail bridge, mounted on a custom designed & machined polished aluminum base.

Instruments are finished with catalyzed paint systems, or our optional oil & wax finish. Models with color staining go through a multi-step stain & coloring process, then are finished with catalyzed clearcoat in satin or gloss, depending on the order. 

Standard Specifications

Scale length:                     25 ½”

Frets:                                 22

Fret material:                      Stainless Steel 

Fingerboard:                       Pau Ferro, Bubinga, Maple, Katalox, Ebony

Position markers:                Custom inlay

Nut:                                     Bone

Bridge:                                Hipshot high-mass hardtail

Tuners:                                Sperzel locking, Hipshot locking

Pickups:                              Custom wound, coil-split,  PAF-range output level

Electronics:                         volume, tone, 5-way pickup selector

Core wood:                         Maple with Alder tone block

Body wood, semi-hollow:     Alder, swamp ash, redwood, cedar backs; Figured maple, myrtle, cedar tops

Body, fully hollow:               Injection molded Tenite cellulosic supported by 6061 aluminum ribs

Case:                                  Lockable hard case, custom fitted

Options- Custom options, discuss with factory prior to ordering

Custom inlay

Unique fingerboard materials (based on availability)

Fret size custom order options

Graphtech Tusq™ Nut material

Kahler tremolo bridge system

Graphtech or other custom order  tuners

Custom pickup output options

Mahogany core construction

Body back & top wood custom options (based on availability)

Custom paint colors

Pictured Guitar:

Granite semi-hollowbody in Murphy trans green gloss.  The body has a one piece mahogany back and figured maple top & matching pickguard.  The core has a pau ferro fingerboard with diamond inlays.  Hardware is gold.