Anthony Gaillard Murray  (1941-2005)

Born February 11, 1941, in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Graduated from Oakland High School, California, 1958.

Studied Industrial Arts at San Francisco State College, 1958-1962.

San Francisco Examiner, February 16, 1965

Opened guitar shop in the basement of 1022 Bush Street, in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, in 1965.

  San Francisco Examiner, July 22, 1966

  San Francisco Examiner, January 20, 1967

   San Francisco Examiner, August 26, 1968

c. 1970, San Francisco

I built classical guitars in Berkeley from 1966 to 1972. I knew Tony well and over time we became good friends. He liked to work at night so many evenings after I finished with my work I would drive over to San Francisco and hang out. I admired his work ethic and his craftsmanship. He played classical guitar and that had a profound influence on the type of guitar he tried to make.  —Dennis Grace

Murray moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1975.

Murray began making duck decoys in 1987.

At thirty-two decoys I have the world's largest collection of Tony Murray duck decoys.  The humidity was so high in the summers in Pungo, Virginia that Tony couldn't make guitars so he made about a dozen or so duck decoys a year.  He lived next to a well-known carver named Frank Finney for years and was friends with another local carver named Jim Brockman.  I wrote a feature article about Tony for 'Decoy' magazine years ago so I got to know him well.  He was a prince of a guy and a truly masterful decoy maker.  His carving was excellent, but not overly detailed, his painting however was among the best I've ever seen, and I've published over two-hundred articles on carvers.  I recently purchased one of his mallards at auction for $750.  Back in the day Tony would have charged $350.  His work isn't as well known and valued as it should be, primarily because he didn't produce many birds and those he made were always snapped up by a small circle of collectors.  That having been said, he's still my favorite carver and I will still pay what I need to get more of his work.  —Rod Taylor

Murray's output was approximately 3 guitars per winter, and approximately 12 decoys per year.

 

Anthony Gaillard Murray died January 30, 2005.
 

Anthony Murray was repulsed by the contemporary "concert" classical guitar and had a totally different philosophy about the guitar, which he taught me years ago as my personal luthier hero and mentor in these matters, and which I share to this day.  He rejected the ultra-high actions and ultra-high tension string approach of modern "concert" classical guitars, because he (practically and realistically) viewed the guitar as a chamber music instrument meant for salons and other intimate venues where the few attentive listeners are quiet.  Playing a classical guitar in a concert hall is an exercise in futility, and making a guitar with that in mind ruins the sweetness of tone.  As a result, his guitars are easier and more fun to play, and they have a compellingly gorgeous tone.  But they are not overly loud.   My guitar has more than enough volume to fill up a quiet Church or art gallery, and a tone that has made hundreds of people say "Wow!" over the years.  Years ago Tony went to a luthier's convention of some sort.  When he came back he visited me on his way home.  I asked him if he'd seen anything interesting at the convention.  He shook his head in the negative.  "Just a lot of loud guitars."  He was a man of few words, and I loved the guy.  He didn't make many guitars in his last few years, which is a shame.  —George Pepper, Guitarist, San Antonio, TX

I went to high school with Tony's brother and often visited the shop on Bush St. in San Francisco.  It was a little hole-in-the wall place, a basement shop where Tony worked and sold his instruments.  On entering you would be struck with a pungent aroma of the woods he used, particularly the Spanish Cypress. In the mid 70’s he moved into a farm house in Pungo Virginia.  I own three of his instruments: two classical guitars and a flamenco guitar; he also did a restoration on an old Martin for me.  I often visited him at the farmhouse and he made a rare excursion to Boston to play in my wedding in 1985.  Besides building guitars and lutes (he particularly liked the Baroque lute), he liked to bike, listen to preachers on the radio while he worked, and learned Spanish just so he could minister to prisoners in the Norfolk jail.  He was a pretty accomplished flamenco guitarist, having studied with Adonis Puertas in San Francisco in the 60’s.  He had acquired an amazing stock of German Spruce in the 50’s and there was still a good quantity of it left after his death in 2005.  In recognition of his Bible teaching and ministry his local Baptist church named their school after him, probably little aware of his significance in the guitar world.  We were good friends; but then almost anybody that knew Tony would count him as a friend.  —Eric Anthony, Guitarist, Boston, MA

I first met Tony Murray in the early 1980s after he moved to Virginia Beach from San Francisco.  Over the years we became close friends. I purchased my first guitar from him after doing a blind A,B,C comparison with one of his guitars, my nice Ramirez 1A, and a friend’s guitar made by Gilbert.  Listening from the back of a reasonably large church, the Murray was louder, fuller-sounding and clearer than the other two guitars. I even made a tape recording of the comparisons and I confirmed my preference for the Murray later by listening to the tape.  Of course, it’s not fair to generalize that all Murrays are “better” than Ramirez or Gilbert guitars, but among those three, on that day, the Murray stood out.  I sold my Ramirez after that, and bought the Murray.  During the last decade or so of his life, an important side to Tony was his faith in Christ and his humble trust in God.  He would go weekly to the Virginia Beach jail and visit the prisoners there, sharing about the Lord.  In being remembered, he would want you to know that his faith and God’s grace were foremost in his heart.  —Eric Schoulda, Guitarist (former student of Jose Tomas, Aaron Shearer and others), Winston-Salem, NC

Tony Murray was a beautiful guy.  I loved to talk about guitars with him.  I miss him.  The lute he built me was gorgeous, with a clear, warm sound.  —Michael Lorimer, Guitarist (former student of Andres Segovia), New York City