Murphy & Co.A NOTE FROM JOE MURPHY
Everybody remembers the guitar they had to save for. You knew what it cost. You knew what was in your pocket. Sometimes those numbers took a while to meet.
Kiefer Sutherland remembers that feeling, too. In a 2019 interview with Guitar.com, he talked about pawning Christmas presents and putting money down at the guitar store. A Sonex was part of the climb. Christmas, apparently, was part of the financing plan.
In 2022, he put a name to the milestone: his first Gibson was a Sonex. He remembered it as the guitar you bought when a Les Paul or an SG was beyond reach. I like that detail. The famous collector still remembers what he could afford.
The Sonex at Murphy & Co. is attributed to Sutherland as that first Gibson. That is the collection’s story, and the interviews give the Sonex a place in his own account of becoming a player. The instrument record and the sources follow here.
Gibson put the Sonex-180 Deluxe in its 1980 catalog. Single cutaway. Two humbuckers. A big pickguard. A guitar with its own place in the lineup, and a name that still starts a conversation when someone opens the case.
Sutherland eventually built a recording career of his own. Down in a Hole arrived in 2016, followed by Reckless & Me and Bloor Street. Put the records on and there is that familiar voice, telling you a different kind of story.
For me, the appeal of a first guitar is easy to understand. It belongs to the part of life when wanting to play was enough to keep you going. You learned a chord. Then another. You heard something come out of the amplifier and wanted to do it again.
That is why this Sonex belongs in Stories & Strings. There is a whole collection ahead of it. I keep coming back to the beginning.
Everybody starts somewhere.
Sources and evidence.
Collection identity: Gibson Sonex-180 Deluxe attributed by the owner to Kiefer Sutherland. His interview identifies his first Gibson as a Sonex and describes earlier guitars. It supplies no serial or transfer chain for this instrument. Exact year, physical serial, current condition and ownership documentation remain to be matched.
- Henry Yates / Guitar World — February 17, 2022
Direct artist interview: first-Gibson recollection; historical context rather than exact-object authentication.
Source edition: Before the nice ones, October 22, 2026, Appendix A. The displayed cover is an illustration. Period catalog and artist images are contextual references; they are not inspection photographs of this Sonex.
The record behind the story.
- Identification
- Gibson Sonex-180 Deluxe, as identified by the owner.
- Artist recollection
- Published interviews establish Sutherland’s recollection that his first Gibson was a Sonex. He also describes earlier guitars.
- Collection attribution
- The owner attributes this particular Sonex to Sutherland as that first Gibson.
- Still to match
- Physical serial, exact year, condition and original ownership or transfer documents.
Sutherland’s interviews describe his first Gibson as a Sonex, but do not identify this particular guitar. Its connection to him remains a collection attribution pending the matching ownership records.
From the Murphy & Co. collection journal · October 22, 2026. Provenance statements and open questions are distinguished in the record above.