Rory Gallagher’s iconic and heavily worn 1961 Fender Stratocaster is finally being put on display at the National Museum in Ireland.

The Irish bluesman bought the guitar second-hand for £100 from Crowley’s music store in Cork in 1963, and it was his number one guitar throughout his storied career. The Strat, the first one to reach Irish shores, had originally been ordered by Jim Conlon of the Royal Showband, but he was left disappointed when the sunburst model, as opposed to the red one he ordered, turned up.

It has, save for several museum stays, been kept in the possession of Gallagher’s brother and former manager, Dónal, since his passing in 1995. Much furore was caused when its sale was first announced last July, with Irish politicians, and the daughter of the man who sold Gallagher the instrument, campaigning the keep the guitar in Ireland.

“This guitar means so much to us in Cork, and we need to become the custodians of that magical guitar,” Sheena Crowley wrote at the time. “We feel tied to him, and the guitar is a symbol of what he represents for us.”

Joe Bonamassa was also behind the campaign, and hailed the news that it would be donated to the National Museum at Collins Barracks, Dublin, following its $1.16 million sale as “the best news I've heard all year.”

From October 16, the guitar is set to be displayed at the museum as one of 250 pieces relating to Irish history and culture. It comes as part of the biggest expansion of its public galleries in over two decades.

The exhibition, entitled The Changing Ireland Galleries, puts the country’s most important moments under the microscope, with artifacts from those times speaking of its history. The fact that Gallagher’s Strat — and quite possibly his 1932 National Resonator recently taken for a spin by Joe Bonamassa — will feature alongside a decommissioned RPG7 rocket launcher used by the IRA in the 1970s, during the Troubles, and items from the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921) shows its cultural significance.

Speaking about the electric guitar last year, Gallagher's nephew, Daniel, stressed its importance in his career.

“It meant a hell of a lot to him, and was a huge part of his sound,” he said. “He played it to death. I don't think he would have swapped it for anything in the world.”

Bonamassa recently played three nights in Gallagher’s hometown of Cork, and even bought a sunburst Strat from Crowley’s Music in a bid to follow in his footsteps. Since then, he’s spoken with Guitar World about why Gallagher’s talents are underrated by many.

“Rory always played with a fiery intensity and communicated great emotional depth in every performance,” he wrote. “And within the world of slide guitar, he is one of the greatest ever.”

Discussing his earliest memories of Gallagher with Guitar Player last year, he recalled being rapt by his “Live in Europe” album.

“Here's this guy with long hair, a flannel shirt and he looked like he just came out of an auto factory playing some of the most gutbucket blues and rock you've ever heard,” he said.

The sale of Gallagher’s Strat, which was bought by Live Nation Gaiety Ltd, makes it one of the most expensive Strats ever sold at auction. It’s bested only by David Gilmour’s Black Strat ($3.9M). the Reach Out to Asia Strat ($2.7M), which was auctioned for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and Gilmour's 1954 #0001 Strat ($1.8M).

Fender CEO Andy Mooney had once, unsuccessfully, tried to buy Gilmour's famed #0001 Strat, calling it his “holy grail.” Considering the eye-watering price it ultimately went for, it’s no surprise that Gilmour wasn’t willing to do a deal.

It was first owned by country player Rex Gallion, and passed through the hands of Seymour Duncan before it made its way to the Pink Floyd guitarist. It's on that guitar that he recorded the Nile Rodgers-esque rhythm parts in "Another Brick in the Wall."

South Carolina blues-rock guitarist Marcus King was still a teenager when he released his 2014 debut LP, Soul Insight. Five albums and a signature Gibson guitar later, King and his reputation remain as big and bold as ever.

He has a pretty good relationship with luck as well. As King recently revealed, he bought a guitar while he was drunk.

How drunk was he?

Let's just say he didn't even remember making the purchase.

As for the guitar? It was a 1966 Fender Esquire. Despite being four sheets to the wind, King was sharp enough to know a good thing when he played it.

“I was drinking a lot and forgot that I bought it,” he tells Guitar World. “The folks at Carter Vintage called me and were like, ‘You gonna come get this guitar?’

“It's probably the only good thing that ever came from my drinking.”

Thankfully, unlike Yvette Young, who bought a banjo to counter the awkwardness of third wheeling on a date, he hasn't suffered buyer's remorse. The Esquire, alongside his signature ES-345 Sixties Cherry, became a big part of his rig — once he got around to picking it up, that is.

However, he’s also confessed to barely playing any of his electric guitars when he’s at home and off the clock.

“Guitar is so deeply rooted in me. I like to play different instruments, and it helps my playing when I go back to the guitar,” he believes. “I read [bass guitarist] Victor Wooten's book [The Music Lesson], and he harped on the importance of being a musician, not a bass player. I have always been influenced by that idea. It’s a holy experience to be able to sit at a guitar and say exactly what I have on my mind.”

King’s talents have, in recent months, allowed him to play some rather historic guitars. In May, he took Jeff Beck's “YardBurst” Les Paul for a spin at Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre, to “keep its story going.” Its owner, Matthieu Lucas of Matt's Guitar Shop in Paris, France, bought the guitar at last year's record-breaking auction of the late guitarist's gear, parting with $490,000 for the honor.

In support of Sandra Beck's desire that her husband's guitars would go on to be loved and played by a legion of other players, Lucas loaned it to Lenny Kravitz's foil, Craig Ross, for a full European tour earlier this year. King was the next recipient of Lucas' legacy-extending project.

Just two months later, he had Rory Gallagher’s Fender Telecaster, immortalized at during his Isle of Wight set in 1970. Lucas is also the owner of that guitar, having raided Rory Gallagher's gear auction last year, where his infamous relic'd Strat was sold for $1.16m.

“When you look at that guitar, you think about Rory's first band, Taste, most notably at Isle of Wight and all his career and legacy,” Lucas tells Guitar World. “I think Rory was one of the best guitar players that ever lived, and so is Marcus today. The feeling of having that legendary guitar being played so beautifully is an incredible sensation.”

King is now readying the release of his next album, Darling Blue, later this month. It sees the Grammy-nominated guitarist reuniting with his live band in the studio for the first time since 2018's Carolina Confessions.

“This album felt like a real concerted effort to make music for myself, and for ourselves as a band — creating for the love of creating and being as honest as we possibly can,” he says. “We put everything we had into making something that we love, and we have faith that the audience will feel that and love it too.”

His drunken purchase is likely to have played a key role in the record's creation. If buying a '66 Esquire is the worst thing he's done after a few tipples, he's gotten off lightly.

Aerosmith’s career got off to a bumpy start. Even with a little impromptu help from Steve Hunter on their second album, “Get Your Wings”, the band was facing the axe from their label ahead of writing its follow-up. Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, and company found their stride on "Toys in the Attic" — but a year earlier, they’d been given a sharp reality check as to the status of the band.

Certain pockets of the American rock scene were more receptive to their twin-guitar, hard blues-rock shtick than others. By the time "Get Your Wings" was released, the Boston band had built a strong following in cities like Detroit. But New York remained a tough nut to crack — even when they found themselves headlining a festival.

“We played once with Rory Gallagher in Central Park,” Brad Whitford, flanked by Joe Perry, tells Rick Beato in a new interview. It was the Schaefer Music Festival, a series of gigs that took place that Summer, which saw Peter Frampton, B.B. King, and Bad Company also perform.

For Joe Perry the memory is still painful: “I don't wanna hear about that,” he says.

“It was before we were accepted in New York at all,” Whitford continues. “Rory Gallagher probably had one of the most stunning shows of his entire career.”

“He kicked our ass,” Perry agrees. “We headlined. He went on first, and he kicked our ass.”

There was a clear divide between how the Irishman, whom Joe Bonamassa has recently honored with a trio of dates in his hometown, was received, and how they treated Aerosmith.

“He went off stage. They made him come out for an encore,” Whitford goes on. “He did his encore. Went off. They made him come out again. Another encore. They wouldn't stop. He came out for three encores.

“And then we got on the stage, and I just remember watching people walk away before we even started playing. It was like the show's over, and who are these guys? They didn't care.”

According to Setlist.fm, Aerosmith soldiered through an 11-song set bookended by "Somebody", from their self-titled 1973 debut album, and their rough and tough cover of Tiny Bradshaw's "The Train Kept A-Rollin'". It sounds like a thankful night at the office. Afterwards, they retreated backstage to lick their wounds and console themselves that such a disparaging reaction was purely down to the fact that Rory Gallagher played out of his skin.

It’s not the first time Gallagher has shown a then-small, now-mammoth act a thing or two about live performances during his lifetime. Alex Lifeson says Rush’s first proper tour, under his wing, was a huge education for him, and he came away having learned a trick that is now all over the progger’s back catalog.

Elsewhere in their chat with Beato, the pair discussed the trouble of finding the right amplifier as they battled through their first records.

“All that shit was pretty much handmade,” says Perry. “So, you might get a great Marshall and another one not so great. They were also kind of like Harley Davidson's; you had to travel with a toolkit 'cause when they sounded the best, was right before they blew up.

“People didn’t realize that when they're glowing hot, it's a sign that they're getting pummelled, so we just went from amp to amp. I remember taking amps apart to solder something on there to try and get a bit more gain out of them.”

Last month, Perry hinted that Aerosmith are not quite done touring yet. The band was forced into retirement last year due to Steven Tyler’s ongoing health issues, but says there have been discussions about doing at least one more show.

More than 60 years after Rory Gallagher bought his infamous 1961 Fender Stratocaster from Crowley’s Music Store in Cork, Ireland, Joe Bonamassa has followed in his footsteps.

On the eve of three Rory Gallagher tribute shows in the city, he’s retraced his hero’s vital early steps and walked out of the store with a sunburst Strat of his own.

Gallagher's guitar was the first of its kind to arrive on Irish shores when he bought it. The instrument had been destined for another owner, but it was sold to Crowley’s after it came with a sunburst finish, rather than red finish the customer preferred. Gallagher bought the guitar on a finance deal in 1963 for £100.

The Strat quickly proved to be a workhorse electric guitar and bore the brunt of its toils. Its finish wore away through constant playing and Rory’s acidic sweat. Over the years he owned it, the guitar rarely left his side and has become an enigmatic symbol of his legacy.

Bonamassa paid a visit to Crowley’s in order to repeat Gallagher’s feat. Casual observers may question the purchase: Bonamassa said the Dumble amp he recently bought — his ninth since 2020 — would be his last big purchase as he looks to nip his GAS in the bud.

But this is a very different scenario.

Speaking about Gallagher's impact on his life with Guitarist ahead of the auction of his gear last year, Bonamassa said his world changed when his father presented him with the Rory's 1972 solo album, Live in Europe.

“Here's this guy,” he said, “with long hair, a flannel shirt, and he looked like he just came out of an auto factory playing some of the most gutbucket blues and rock you've ever heard.”

Bonamassa will play his three shows in honor of Gallagher at the Marquee in Cork, on July 1, 2, and 3. He’s called it “the biggest challenge of my musical life.” Consequently, he’s been getting a taste of the lands Gallagher called home in preparation.

Posting a photo of him standing alongside Crowley’s staff, Bonamassa says, “I've always wanted to buy a sunburst Fender Stratocaster from Crowley's Music Centre in Cork. Today I did.”

Included in the photo is Sheena Crowley, the daughter of the man who sold Rory Gallagher his legendary Strat all those years ago. Sheena had launched a GoFundMe campaign to keep the guitar in the city upon learning it was to be sold at auction.

Bonamassa opened his wallet to support the campaign, and although the guitar sold for $1.16 million and was consequently donated to the National Museum of Ireland, the €75,000 (approx $86,400) raised wasn’t wasted.

As confirmed in her recent interview with the Cork Independent, the funds were spent on acquiring other pieces of Gallagher’s musical history. They are now being displayed at a new permanent exhibition in Collins Barracks in Cork.

The tribute shows were the idea of Dónal, Rory’s younger brother and manager, but he says there will be caveats.

“When they reached out, I said, ‘You had me at hello,’” he tells Classic Rock. “Then I thought about it and went, Shit, what did I just sign up for?”

“We’ve put together a great band featuring [bass guitarist] Aongus Ralston, [keyboardist] Lachy Doley, and [drummer] Jeremy Stacey [whose credits include King Crimson and Sheryl Crow],” he adds.

“Before starting rehearsal, I told Dónal: ‘I’m not Rory; I don’t want to be a tribute act that replicates all the little glitches and mistakes. I’m going to be myself.’ And they said that’s exactly what they want. Having heard that, I could relax.”

Only two shows were originally slated, but a third date has been added due to overwhelming demand. As the above video shows, Bonamassa has given fans a glimpse into the Strats being used for the shows, and there are some heavy relics among the bunch.

Meanwhile, Bonamassa has offered his best amp-buying advice, believing “you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a great sound.” Buying the right guitar, however, is a personal matter.

He called himself “the Killer,” and he lived up to the name, if not literally then figuratively.

Jerry Lee Lewis was one of rock and roll’s founding fathers, a piano-pounding boogie-woogie rocker with a piled-high pompadour and a smirk that said he didn’t give a shit if you liked him or not. He was a Sun Records original, alongside Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, churning out hits that included signature romps like “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire.”

But while his fellow Sun rockers maintained favorable public profiles, Lewis was the bad boy, unpredictable except for the fact that you could count on him to stir up trouble wherever he went. He trashed pianos, crashed cars and once shot his bass player.

But Lewis scandalized rock and roll like few others when he married his 13-year-old first cousin once removed in 1957. The news didn’t come out until the following year, and when it broke, his career was all but finished.

By the time 1950s rock and roll had its revival in the early '70s, the world had moved on and Lewis was able to make a comeback. He staged it in Britain in 1973, where a new breed of electric guitar players were holding court. Lewis saw them as the key to his revival, and he courted them for his rather clumsily named album The Session...Recorded in London with Great Artists.

For guitarists and lovers of guitar rock, the record is notable for hosting appearances by British and Irish players like Albert Lee, Peter Frampton and Rory Gallagher. Lewis was attempting to stay relevant by connecting with the artists of the day in the hope that their cool would rub off on him.

It certainly didn’t hurt: The Session became his highest pop-charting album since his 1964 Golden Hits retrospective. It put his career back on track.

But as Gallagher revealed, the Killer was anything but an easy hang.

“He was pretty friendly with everyone, but you had to be one step ahead of him — you know, his sort of sense of humor,” Gallagher said of the sessions. “One minute he’s lifting the Steinway up on one foot, and…” He drifted off, leaving it to the reader to imagine what calamity might have followed.

Gallagher performed with Lewis on his cover of the Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Apparently, the Killer had never heard the 1965 hit before.

Gallagher’s brother Donal recalled that Lewis, having read through Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ words for the tune, wasn’t sure if the song was real or a well-contrived joke to make old Jerry Lee look frustrated and out of touch.

“A bit bamboozled at the lyrics and a bit embarrassed at not really knowing of the song, Jerry’s paranoia kicked in and thought he was being ‘wound-up,’” Donal told Rolling Stone.

"Annoyance flashed on the Killer’s face, as his wild eyes scanned the studio, fixing on Rory. ‘I trust you boy. Without looking at anyone else but me, tell me truthfully, is there a song called ‘Satisfaction’? If so, you start teaching me.’”

Despite the melodrama, Rory appreciated that Lewis lived up to his legend.

“You know, that was the beauty of it,” he said. “You meet certain rock and roll legends and they’re a pale imitation of their stage image, or their legend is a kind of a dull version of it. But Jerry Lee was almost 99 percent full Technicolor!”

Dave Davies was considerably less generous in his estimation of the pianist. The Kinks cofounder was among the British guitarists — including Brian May — who performed with Lewis in London at a 1989 all-star tribute to the ‘50s rocker called Jerry Lee Lewis and Friends. Growing up in the 1950s, Davies considered Lewis “a big hero” alongside original rock guitarists like Chuck Berry.

But the tribute show changed all that.

“That was a big mistake,” Davies told Classic Rock in 2011. “I soon realized that Jerry Lee Lewis was an arsehole. A complete arsehole.

“He had a terrible personality. He didn’t treat people well at all. Maybe he was like that because he was surrounded by arseholes himself. You know, he could win all the accolades he wants, but on his deathbed he’ll have to look at himself.”

Davies and Gallagher at least had the advantage of being successful guitarists in their own right. Poor Ritchie Blackmore was a complete unknown when he began working with Lewis in 1963.

“Every time Jerry Lee Lewis would come to England, I was hired as his guitar player,” he told Guitar Player in 1996.

Like many artists of the day, Lewis would tour alone and use pickup bands and musicians for gigging. Blackmore, then performing with his group the Outlaws, was a frequent hire. But as he explained to GP, he had to endure a trial by fire at his first rehearsal with the Killer.

“The first time I played with him I’d just turned 18, and we were supposed to have a week’s rehearsal,” Blackmore explained. “The week before the tour he hadn’t turned up. Two days before the tour, still nothing. We were going to open in Birmingham, and he turned up the afternoon of the gig.

“I was shitting myself because I’d heard from all these bands that if you played a wrong note, Jerry would beat the shit out of you — he’d punch you in the face.

"I was a big fan, but I was very frightened of him.

“About an hour before the show, Jerry turns up, sits down at the piano and starts fiddling around. I’m petrified. I have no idea what this guy’s going to play, and we’re about to do a big show to a sold-out theater.

“He plays his intro and then turns around to us and says, ‘C’ [Blackmore sings a driving rock and roll groove]. The bass player’s giving me the nod for when we’re changing, because I still don’t know what we’re playing.

“Suddenly, Jerry Lee stops, says ‘F,’ and he’s into something else.

“Now he leaves the piano and starts to walk over to me. I’m absolutely petrified, looking at him, waiting for that punch.

“And he goes, ‘Play, boy,’ in that very southern way.

"I start taking my solo, sweating. ‘He’s going to hit me! I know it’s coming.’ He’s standing there with his hands on his hips, looking right at me.

"I came to the end of the solo, and he put his hand out: ‘Good, boy.’

“I was just relieved that he didn’t hit me!”

Blackmore went on to play many dates with Lewis, during which he and the Killer got better acquainted.

“After that we became the best of friends,” Blackmore said. “He wanted to bring me back to Memphis, but that was in ’63, and I was only 18.”

Over his 70-year career, Lewis would go on to work with many other guitar greats, including Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and B.B. King, whom he corralled for his star-studded albums. He continued his 12-bars-with-guitar-stars approach that worked so well for him back in 1973 right up until 2014, eight years before the Killer breathed his last on October 28, 2022.

Rory Gallagher was slated to join Cream — the revolutionary power trio featuring Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker — after Clapton announced his departure from the group in 1968, less than two years after it formed.

So claims Donal Gallagher, the guitarist's brother, who says Cream's management saw the young Irish rocker as a way to keep the group alive and continue to reap the financial rewards.

History remembers Cream as the band that brought psychedelic, hard rock stylings to electric blues. Clapton was inspired to form a free-wheeling three-piece after watching Buddy Guy at London’s Marquee Club in 1965. The result was Cream, so named for the talents of its players, who represented the best in British blues and jazz in the mid 1960s. Despite their deserved legendary status, the band imploded after constant in-fighting — particularly between bass player Bruce and drummer Baker — pushed Clapton to the brink..

Speaking to Guitar World in 1997, Baker recounted when the band’s inevitable death knell rang.

“After a gig in Texas in 1968, Eric came to me and said, ‘I’ve had enough.’ And I said, ‘So have I.’ And that was it. We decided, for different reasons, that it was all over.

"When Cream died, it died. Short of murder, we couldn’t solve a problem between us.”

Donal Gallagher says that's when Cream's backers eyed Rory, who thought the blues guitar player was a worthy successor to Clapton.

By November 1968, Gallagher was forging quite the reputation with his own power trio, Taste. Allegedly even Jimi Hendrix was a fan. When asked how it felt to be the world’s greatest guitarist, Jimi reportedly replied, “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Rory Gallagher.”

Although Gallagher's notoriety in guitar circles was growing exponentially, commercial success evaded him. Cream’s management believed they had the power to change his fortunes.

“It was very much a management thing — ‘Find somebody to replace Clapton,’” Dónal revealed in a 2009 interview with Guitar World. Gallagher, however, wasn’t for the taking.

“Rory was known to them, and they got on well,” his brother continues. “But Rory wouldn't have any of it. He said, ‘Musically, there's no way I'd try and fill somebody else's shoes, especially Eric's.’”

Dónal said Rory knew accepting the offer would have been a “fast track” to fame and money, but he wasn’t looking for shortcuts.

“He felt that he would never be his own man,” Dónal concludes.

Like Eric, Rory was a devotee of blues, but there is no guarantee he would have fit with Cream any better than Clapton had. As Bruce explained to Guitarist in 2012, he believed Clapton was the odd man out in Cream, considering his two bandmates were far better versed in jazz.

“Eric thought he was going to have this little blues trio and be like Buddy Guy,” Bruce said. "We had different ideas.”

Ultimately, Rory’s quest led Taste to breakup two years later as a solo career beckoned. His talents have become more widely recognized since his untimely passing in 1995. Evidence of that was clear when his heavily worn 1961 Stratocaster sold at auction for $1.16 million late last year. Thanks to a successful campaign to ensure the Strat remained on Irish soil, the guitar was donated to the National Museum of Ireland.

Joe Bonamassa, a vocal supporter of the decision, was given a chance to play two of Rory’s other Fenders ahead of the auction. He's set to play a series of tribute shows to his hero in Ireland later this year, something he's called it “the biggest challenge of my musical life”.

Meanwhile, Gallagher has been honored with a statue in Belfast, although eyebrows were raised after a crucial detail appeared to be wrong.

Rush were progressive-rock pioneers, but beneath the layers of mind-boggling time signature changes and maze-like song structures, they were a blues band. And for guitarist Alex Lifeson, few blues guitarists captured his imagination like Rory Gallagher did.

Lifeson says Eric Clapton was another he’d obsess over in his early playing days, citing Slowhand's work on Cream's "Spoonful" as the first guitar solo he ever learned to play. Jimmy Page was another — Lifeson said “he was everything I hoped he would be,” when the pair finally crossed paths.

But Gallagher holds an extra special place in his heart.

Lifeson says he stumbled upon the Irish guitarist's work when Gallagher was in Taste, his pre-solo career outfit. He recalls being “really impressed” by what he heard.

“It was blues-based,” Lifeson tells the Gallagher's YouTube channel. “But he was in a lot of ways a great rock guitarist. He had so much energy in his playing; he wasn't a typical blues player.

“His style,” he adds, “was all of his own. It was a reflection of his soul, truly. And his vocals and guitar playing together made for this really, really special thing that very few people have.”

Before Rush were selling out arenas, they were cutting their teeth as a support act alongside heavy hitters like Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, and — perhaps most strangely — Kiss.

The Canadian outfit released their debut record in March 1974, and by that fall were embarking on their first-ever tour as the opener on a three-band bill headlined by Gallagher.

“Playing with Rory was a real treat,” Lifeson reminisces. “In the fall of 1974, we were 20 years old — this was our first tour. It was exciting, but we didn't know our place. We were trying to stay in the background and be as polite as possible and not be a bunch of dicks basically.

“Right from the get-go, Rory and the band were so hospitable and accommodating,” he continues. “I would watch Rory every night and go back to the dressing room and just play. I was so inspired.

"Honest to god, his soul was just amazing. To see him close his eyes and lose himself in his guitar playing was truly remarkable. There's a purity to it.”

Fast forward six years and the tables had turned. The success of Moving Pictures' — today regarded as one of the greatest prog albums ever made — had catapulted Rush to the top of the bill. This time, Rory would support them.

“Things were really going gangbuster for us, and there was an offer of Rory to open for a tour, and we were absolutely all over it,” Lifeson says smiling. “That's when I really got to know him. We spent a lot of free time together. On a day off we would sit and talk for hours, and maybe drink a little bit too much.”

Family and politics became two bonding points. Gallagher spoke about growing up during the Troubles in Ireland, while Lifeson, of Yugoslavian heritage, saw parallels with the struggles his ancestors faced. Hearing this, Gallagher bought him a copy of Irish novelist Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman.

“He said, ‘You've got to read this. He's a great satirist. It gives you an eye for that Irish humor!’ I read the book and I got back to him days later, I guess, and said I really enjoyed it.

“We had a bit of a break,” Lifeson continues. “He went back to Ireland and then came back to North America and bought me the whole series of books.

“It wasn't just about the music. He was so thoughtful and considerate to other people. He was such a wonderful person. Never mind his talents and skills, he was just a really great man”

Lifeson drew influence from Gallagher “from a very early time,” and says he was “honored” to have spent two tours with his idol. That first tour, in 1974, proved particularly fruitful for a young Lifeson, during which he learned one key trick from Gallagher that was subsequently heard all over Rush's extensive back catalog.

“He had this way of getting harmonics from a guitar pick by just picking in a certain way and I'd never heard anyone do that ever. I heard it all over his stuff,” he reflects. “And I thought, Wow, what an effective thing to do. I employ the little trick in all my stuff all the time, and I learned it directly from him.”

While Lifeson doesn't elaborate on this point, Gallagher's technique was pinch harmonics, a picking style which Leslie West, as he revealed to Guitar Player in 1972.

Gallagher passed in 1995 and his gear had been under the charge of his family, who loaned it to museums and musicians, up until last year. There was outrage at first when the Gallgher family announced the sale of his iconic, time-beat ‘61 Stratocaster, with campaigns launched to keep it in Ireland as a symbol of the country’s cultural heritage.

It sold for a staggering $1.16 million and was then donated to the National Museum of Ireland, where it is expected to remain.

The Irish blues icon was honored with a statue in Belfast, Northern Ireland earlier this year. However, one key detail appeared to be wrong.

Meanwhile, Alex Lifeson is busy with his Lerxst gear brand. He recently reissued his famous Hentor Sportcaster as the Grace. In April, he will also release his second album with his new band Envy of None.

Brian May has revealed how meeting Rory Gallagher backstage in the late 1960s inspired one of his now-iconic gear choices, and says he wanted Queen to have a rhythm guitarist when they first formed.

The Red Special–toting guitarist has been on the promo trail for the recent reissue of the 50th anniversary Queen I box set and has reflected on the band’s early days with Guitarist.

From that first album to their last — 1995’s Made in Heaven — May’s three-pronged attack of his Red Special guitar, a Vox AC30 combo amp and a Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster pedal has been a quintessential part of Queen’s sound. Yet had he not met Gallagher backstage at London's Marquee club and taken his words of advice to heart, May would have likely ended up with a very different-sounding rig.

As the guitarist explains, he lingered at the club after Gallagher's band Taste completed their show.

“I managed to stay behind at the Marquee when everyone had gone home," he said. “I asked him, ‘Rory, how do you get that sound?’ And he said, ‘Well, it’s easy, I have the AC30 and this little box, and I turn it up and it sings for me.’ The next day, I went to a guitar shop and found two secondhand AC30s for £30 each.”

Importantly, though, while May was inspired by the tones coming out of Gallagher’s little box — most likely with a little help from his heavily worn ‘61 Stratocaster — he didn’t aim to replicate it.

“I found a Treble Booster,” he goes on. “I plugged it in with my guitar, turned it all the way up and it just melted my stomach. That’s my sound. And it’s different from Rory’s. His is much more bright.”

May has fond memories of meeting Gallagher and recounted how it all came about in the documentary What's Going On — Taste Live at the Isle of Wight.

“We were boys and we hung around and hid when the Marquee was at turning-out time, and then we strolled over as if we ought to be there,” he explained.

“He was incredibly patient. He was packing up his own gear — that’s the kind of man he was... and he had the grace to speak to us. He didn’t go, ‘Get out of here!’”

Gallagher’s influence on the band’s sound cannot be downplayed. But if May had his way, their sound would have changed in another way.

“Very early on, we arrived at this view that being a live act was not the same as the studio. Actually, it was simpler because there’s only four of us onstage and no overdubs,” he says.

“It took me a long time to feel confident about being the only guitar onstage. I always felt like I needed a rhythm guitar. But gradually I got into this habit of playing lead and rhythm at the same time — and I realized that nobody noticed the lack of it.

“So we had enough. You could fashion that live performance to make people feel they’d heard an orchestra.”

May is currently recovering from a stroke he suffered last summer and has made limited public appearances since. However, while on a nostalgia trip with Guitarist, he did explain how he had a brief flirtation with Marshall amps later on in his career, only for a tonal disaster “that sounded like an angry wasp,” and schooling from Jimi Hendrix saw him double-down on his loyalty to Vox.

Gary Moore could soon be honored with a statue in Belfast, hot on the heels of fellow Irish blues guitar great Rory Gallagher receiving a statue in the Northern Irish capital.

Gallagher’s statue has caused a little controversy in the city in which he often played shows — particularly during the Irish Troubles — after one crucial detail appeared to have been overlooked. It’s hoped that Moore’s statue will avoid a similar fate.

Plans for Moore’s (presumably) bronze immortalization on the streets of his hometown have been shared by Belfast’s Green Party councilor, Brian Smyth as the city looks to show a greater recognition of its musical heritage.

“Belfast City Council agreed to my proposal to carry out a land check of sites in the Cathedral Quarter for a potential Gary Moore statue,” he said in an Instagram post. “As a proud son of our city and East Belfast, he blazed a trail and has left a lasting legacy for rock and blues fans across the world.”

Gallagher, born in Ballyshannon, but raised in Cork, passed in 1995, meaning the statue's unveiling came just shy of 30 years after the fact. Belfast-native Moore died in 2011 leaving a legacy of work behind him that transcended across rock, blues, and jazz fusion playing styles as a member of Skid Row, Thin Lizzy, and a solo artist.

Smyth, it seems, wants to make up for lost time by recognizing the city's most beloved musicians.

“Gary was one of the greatest ever guitarists and deserves to be honored in his home city,” his post goes on. “We have never been great at celebrating our people who have achieved great success. It’s time to change that in relation to Gary Moore and tell his story for future generations of aspiring musicians in Belfast.”

The councilor has been collaborating with the Wild Frontier Memorial Project, established in Moore's memory, to raise €80,000 (approx. $83,202) of private funding for the statue.

Speaking to The Irish News earlier this month while highlighting the need for the funding, he called Moore, “probably the greatest guitarist to come out of Belfast.”

Gary Moore famously came to own Peter Green's "Greeny" Les Paul – now under the care of Metallica's Kirk Hammett – and even played it on a kid's TV show on a Saturday morning to promote his Wild Frontier album in 1987 as his sensational musicianship blew his peers away time and time again.

The electric guitar also starred on the iconic slow blues song, Parisian Walkways, a song characterized by some incredible sustain from the guitarist. In a 2007 interview with GP, he reflected on how a young Randy Rhoads became enamored with the song after seeing him play it love. He would pull from the song for his epic outro solo on Mr Crowley.

By the latter part of his career, 'Greeny' took a back seat as he “tried to get a modern, less high-gain version of that natural sound that Eric Clapton had in the '60s.” The revelation came during a 2009 chat with GP which also revealed the extent of blues greats have impacted his sound.

Speaking after his passing, former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell said of Moore: “His playing was exceptional and beautiful. We won't see his like again.”

A statue honoring the late Irish blues guitarist Rory Gallagher has been unveiled in Belfast, Northern Ireland, outside Ulster Hall, a music venue where he regularly played.

Unfortunately, they got a key detail wrong.

Which seems a little odd when you consider how much Gallagher has been in the press over the past six months. Last July brought news that his family planned to auction off his iconic well-worn Fender Stratocaster. This led to a drive to keep the guitar in Ireland, which gained support from Irish politicians.

Concerned parties sighed a breath of relief after the buyer, who paid $1.16 million for the instrument, donated it to the National Museum of Ireland.

So it seems more than a little odd that Gallagher's statue shows him with a Fender Telecaster — rather than his unmistakably battered Stratocaster — draped over his shoulders.

Gallagher didn’t play his Strat exclusively, of course. In addition to a 1959 Fender Esquire that Joe Bonamassa took for a test drive prior to the auction, the Irish rocker has graced stages with acoustic guitars, several Les Paul Juniors and even a Gretsch Corvette. But it’s a bit like creating a statue of Slash playing a B.C. Rich Mockingbird: It may be historically accurate, but it doesn’t sit right.

As it turns out, the artists behind its creation — Anto Brennan, Jessica Checkley, and David O’Brien of Bronze Art Ireland — based the sculpture on a classic endearing photo of Gallagher, which had graced the front cover of music magazine Melody Maker in 1972. That image show the guitarist with his arms aloft and a Telecaster dangling at waist level.

Regardless, fans have taken to social media to voice their disappointment.

“Rory owned a Tele. But his… STRAT was his iconic trademark,” one user said, with another adding “No Strat? Not too clever.”

In addition, some have questioned the statue's likeness to the man it honors. However, Donal Gallagher, Rory's brother and former manager, has no such concerns.

He was present at its unveiling, and has called it “fitting that the city he loved so much is where his memory will be celebrated for generations to come”.

Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, before his family relocated to Londonderry. He spent his formative years in Cork, where he would later buy his Strat, in 1956.

However, he found his musical freedom in the capital city.

“Growing up, I heard from my dad and Rory how important Belfast was to Rory's musical genesis," said his nephew Daniel. "They'd talk about how he played with wonderful Belfast musicians and how they shaped him – and how the city shaped him. It was kind of the first place in Ireland he could really go and play the blues.”

Gallagher already has a statue in Ballyshannon, complete with a Strat, and a replica of his Strat hangs below a street sign in Dublin.

In related news, Joe Bonamassa announced he'll perform three special Rory Gallagher tribute shows in Cork, Ireland, this July. Bonamassa was the last person to play two of Gallagher's other six-strings before they to went off to auction.

Joe Bonamassa is set to perform three special shows in Rory Gallagher's hometown next summer to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the blues great's passing. For Bonamassa, saying yes to the offer of celebrating the life of his “working class hero” was easy, but dealing with the pressure the occasion has put on him is proving less so.

“Here's this guy with long hair, a flannel shirt and he looked like he just came out of an auto factory playing some of the most gutbucket blues and rock you've ever heard,” Bonamassa had said of his first introduction to Gallagher while playing two of his most adored electric guitars earlier this year.

The chance to honor his legacy in Cork, Ireland, across three shows at the start of July is an exciting prospect, put in motion by the Gallagher family. It’s a move too that, in the wake of the sale of Rory’s iconic Stratocaster and a large portion of his other gear, shows that the family isn’t bequeathing its responsibility for keeping Rory’s flame burning any time soon. Bonamassa, one of the most celebrated and important bluesmen on the scene today, is the perfect man for the task.

“The idea came from the Gallagher family — Dónal [Rory’s younger brother and manager] and Daniel [his nephew and archivist] — and a gentleman from Ireland named Peter Aiken [promoter] who wanted to do something to celebrate next year’s 30th anniversary of Rory’s passing,” Bonamassa recently told Classic Rock. “When they reached out I said, ‘You had me at hello.’

“Then I thought about it and went, Shit, what did I just sign up for?”

When announcing the shows, Bonamassa had called the doubleheader — which has since been upgraded to three shows — “the biggest honor and challenge of my musical life.” He echoed that sentiment once more when speaking to CR.

“They will be,” he says. But there are caveats. “We’ve put together a great band featuring [bass guitarist] Aongus Ralston, [keyboardist] Lachy Doley, and [drummer] Jeremy Stacey [whose credits include King Crimson and Sheryl Crow]. Before starting rehearsal I told Dónal, Daniel, and Peter: ‘I’m not Rory; I don’t want to be a tribute act that replicates all the little glitches and mistakes. I’m going to be myself.’ And they said that’s exactly what they want. Having heard that, I could relax. It’s proven very popular, and from two shows it became three.”

Bonamassa recognizes that Gallagher’s stature isn’t as big in the States as on home soil. Still, via his father’s introduction, he quickly became one of his heroes and is basing his performances on the live album that got him hooked.

“I never thought I would be 47 years old — 48 by the time the shows happen — and doing a set of Rory based on [the legendary double live album] Irish Tour ’74, and doing it in Cork,” he muses. “But here we are. Let’s boogie.

“It won’t be perfect but it’ll be the best I can. You just have to go in there with conviction and show the fans how much the music means. But that’s me, I’ll never back down from a challenge.”

Bonamassa was 18 when Gallagher passed in 1995 meaning he never got the chance to meet his idol. Asked, then, what he’d say to him given the chance, he replied: “I would ask how he got so deeply into the blues. You can hear his Celtic influences, and there was a swing that he put into everything, but Rory really was the sum of his parts.

“He soaked up everything and put it all out in his own way,” he extends, before relaying a revelation he had while preparing for the shows. “The further we got into rehearsals, I began to realize that I was more deeply influenced by Rory even than [Eric] Clapton. I went: ‘Oh shit!’”

He admits that post-shows, “there’s every chance of a couple of Rory songs being Easter-egged into my live set,” but underscored that the show won’t be repeated verbatim.

Bonamassa was vocal about Gallagher’s legendary Strat remaining in Ireland beyond its sale, with Irish politicians and even the daughter of the man who sold Rory the instrument, for £100 in 1963, among the other voices wanting the same.

The campaign proved successful as the guitar was donated to the National Museum of Ireland after selling for $1.16 million in October.

The success of that campaign extends the likelihood of Bonamassa playing the Strat once more, after borrowing it for a soul-rendering take of Sloe Gin at London's Royal Albert Hall over a decade ago.

Whether the iconic instrument makes an appearance or not, it will be a special occasion for Bonamassa and the thousands that pack into Cork's Marquee, which has previously hosted Elton John, Bob Dylan, and Meat Loaf.

The auction of Rory Gallagher’s iconic, heavily relic’d Strat was a story that had the guitar world rapt this year. But while a campaign to keep what was the first Fender Strat to reach Irish shores in the country grabbed the headlines, a huge portion of Gallagher’s other amps, pedals, and guitars went under the hammer with little fanfare.

Rory’s brother and former manager, Dónal, had been charged with its safekeeping the guitarist's gear since his death in 1995. But before the collection left his family’s possession, Guitarist gave Joe Bonamassa the opportunity to play some of Rory's other prized electric guitars .

Lifelong Gallagher fan Bonamassa understands why the clamor around the auction was so laser-focused on that Strat — a 1961 model that Gallagher bought for £100 in 1963.

“A lot of the narrative is that Rory only used one guitar for his whole life," Bonamassa says. "He had a lot of guitars and a lot of amps. But he's most known for using the '61 Strat.”

Bonamassa's father introduced him to Gallagher's music through the guitarist's Live in Europe album. Joe recalled the impression the Irish rocker made on him.

“Here's this guy with long hair, a flannel shirt and he looked like he just came out of an auto factory playing some of the most gutbucket blues and rock you've ever heard.”

The beat-up Strat quickly became an extension of Gallagher, the “working class hero,” but, despite people’s affiliation between man and relic’d Strat, Bonamassa believes Gallagher saw his instruments as merely “tools…different instruments for different things.”

Another Strat, a ‘58 model with a maple fretboard, served as his go-to backup. Bonamassa explained what he believes is the very human reason Gallagher was drawn to the Fender model.

“The Strat is a desert island guitar," he says. "You can pretty much do anything with it. You can play the blues, rock, you can play anything." And of course Rory was inspired to play the Stratocaster because his hero Buddy Holly did. "We all buy our guitar heroes' guitars," Bonamassa says. "I'm no different, Rory was no different.

Bonamassa also commented on the guitar itself.

“I don't know where he got this,” he says. “They weren't growing on trees. He probably bought it on the road in America from a little music store for the low hundreds of dollars. They're $45,000 now.

“This one's pretty cool because the logo is still intact. On a lot of '58s the logo flaked off. They were changing the process a little bit.”

Quizzed on why Gallagher bounced between the two different models, Bonamassa pointed towards the maple fretboard of the '58.

“There's a considerable sound difference between an all-maple Strat like this, and '61 Strat which would have been a slab rosewood fingerboard, meaning that the back and is maple, and there's a large slab of Brazilian rosewood on the front. It gives it a warmer, more rock sound.

“The '58s tend to be more glassy. If you're a Strat connoisseur like Rory, you want a rosewood and a maple neck, depending on the song. I prefer a maple neck because of Buddy Guy.”

It seemed Rory preferred the ballsier sound of rosewood.

It's believed that the finish, pickups, knobs and pickup switch are original parts. Bonamassa theorizes that the one-ply pickguard would have been changed out in the '80s or '90s. Extensive wear on the rear of the guitar shows how much Gallagher gigged with it, while it also reveals that its tremolo has been blocked off. He was never known to use whammy bars.

Away from Strats, Gallagher also played his '59 Fender Esquire. Its body shows signs of heavy scarring made worse after it was crushed on an airport runway. That was one of the very few occasions the guitar ever left his side since he came to own it.

Esquires were a single-pickup sidekick to the Telecaster, but it was soon modded with an after-market neck pickup. He wasn't the only one to do so.

“If everyone in the '70s buying these for $100 knew these would be worth five figures, no one would modify them,” Bonamassa reflects. “These were tools, they weren't collectibles.”

The earliest photos of Gallagher playing the guitar date to 1971. The guitar’s neckplate features the crudely engraved legend “Property Of Buzz Harding, Greensburg Kansas," a hint to its pre-Gallagher origins.

Bonamassa notes that the guitar hasn't been touched since Gallagher died in 1995. “A guitar that sits for 30 years will need a bit of work," he offers. "It's up to the buyer whether they wanna keep Rory's strings on it — which have been on it an effing long time — and get it back up playing.

“I think the worst-case scenario is someone hangs it on their wall and brags to their rich buddies that they bought it. These things are tools and they should make music again.

“The action seems like it was set up for slide. Rory tended to like monster frets and these are really monster frets. It's a great, honest instrument.”

However, he says “the coolest thing” about the guitar is the strap that comes with it. “That's his DNA right there,” he smiles. “It's very cool to have the guitar strap and the tape he used [to hold it together].”

Reflecting on his time playing the two instruments, he says “it's clear these were tools to Rory,” and believes that “a good part of this collection will be back out there making music,” keeping the spirit of Rory Gallagher alive.

Rory’s ‘61 Strat sold for $1.16 million and has since been donated to the National Museum of Ireland. It came after a GoFundMe page — set up by the daughter of the man who sold Rory the guitar — and Irish politicians lobbied for it to stay in Ireland.

Rory Gallagher was at a crossroads in his career when Guitar Player had the great fortune to speak with him for a cover story in the March 1978 issue. Shortly before it, he’d cut tracks for his followup to 1976’s Calling Card in San Francisco, but was unhappy with the slick sound producer Elliot Mazer gave him.

After catching the Sex Pistols performance in San Francisco on January 14, 1978, Gallagher decided to scrap everything he’d recorded and start over again, producing it himself to have a tougher and more aggressive sound. Unfortunately, soon afterward, he broke his thumb when he caught it in a taxi door, an injury that required months of recovery.

In the meantime, Gallagher began revising his lineup with a goal of returning to the power-trio format of his 1960s group Taste. He fired his keyboardist and replaced his drummer with Ted McKenna. In July 1978, a good four months after this interview hit newsstands, Gallagher, bassist Gerry McAvoy and McKenna went to Dierks Studios, in Cologne, Germany to re-cut the scrapped tracks. The album was released the following October as Photo-Finish, a reference to its hurried completion.

In Stefan Grossman's deep interview with the Irish rocker, we have a veritable master class in blues-rock guitar, Rory Gallagher style. From essential albums to gear — including electric guitars, tube amps, acoustic guitars and accessories such as slides — to picking techniques, it’s all here, and much more.

Blues is said to be a universal experience — as Albert King once preached, "Everybody understands the blues" — and Rory Gallagher is surely a case in point. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, the first pieces Rory attempted to play were cowboy songs and Irish folk tunes on acoustic guitar, beginning at age nine. American rock and rollers such as Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry had an early impression on Rory, though he discovered blues, à la Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, by way of Lonnie Donegan's British skiffle hits.

At 15, Gallagher joined the Fontana Show Band, which toured England and Ireland. The constant work helped refine Rory's playing, but the commercial nature of the repertoire caused him to look elsewhere for artistic satisfaction, jamming with the group's drummer and bassist in small clubs throughout Europe.

In 1965 Rory formed Taste, the now legendary blues-rock trio, comprised of Eric Kitteringham on bass, Norman Damery on drums, and Gallagher on guitar, vocals, and, occasionally, saxophone. Although the power trio preceded Cream by several years, comparisons with the English supergroup were inevitable.

In 1969, the band signed with Polydor Records, but by 1970, the group had disbanded and Rory pursued a solo career. To date, Gallagher has appeared on over 20 albums, either as leader or sideman, and has graced sessions featuring such notables as Muddy Waters, Jerry Lee Lewi, and Albert King. He gave his first performance as a solo acoustic guitarist at the 1976 Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. He is currently remixing Photo-Finish, his latest LP for the Chrysalis label, which should be out in early March.

Here, Rory talks about his various musical styles and techniques and the guitars he uses to arrive at his distinctive, energetic sound—an old National Resophonic, a Martin D-35, a Fender Telecaster and his trademark, a battered 1959 Fender Stratocaster.

What Gallagher has to say about blues and rock and roll should be required reading for any aspiring guitarists, just as his many records and live performances should be required listening.

Hypothetically, if you were teaching blues guitar at a school, how would you go about it?

I'd keep it within a reasonably rigid blues framework, just to keep it on center. A lot of it would depend on what music the student had been exposed to. I mean, if your parents were interested in music anyway—your father, for instance, had a couple of Bill Broonzy or Lonnie Johnson albums—or you were brought up listening to jazz programs on the BBC, where they'd slot in the odd blues thing, you'd obviously have a head start. Otherwise, you'd probably get into blues through rock and roll— through Chuck Berry or maybe "High Heeled Sneakers" by Tommy Tucker.

Then with the Rolling Stones era, you could sneak into the blues thing that way. In my case, I started on the proverbial Lonnie Donegan skiffle music trail, where I heard Lonnie doing Leadbelly songs, such as "Rock Island Line" and "Bring Me a Li'l Water Silvy." Before I even owned records by Woody Guthrie or Big Bill Broonzy, I used to get library books out in Cork,— because you couldn't buy the albums in Britain — and I'd learn the lyrics to these songs. But at the same time I was interested in rock and roll — such as Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino. I was listening to both of these strains, because at lots of points they'd cross.

Once you get beyond the Chuck Berry/Eddie Cochran thing, you begin to figure out that you've got Broonzy at one end of the scale — and that goes right back to the old tradition of Charley Patton — then John Lee Hooker has the Detroit electric blues style, which evolved from his acoustic style. And you also get the Josh White sort of folkie style of blues. You just have to listen to a lot of records.

Which records do you think are essential for someone who wants to get into blues?

I suppose you should go out and try to get a good compilation first, like the Paul Oliver selections, The Story of the Blues, Vols. I & II [Columbia] which still have a couple of important people missing; for instance, Muddy Waters isn't on either volume — which is insane. But I suppose you'd have to go back to one of the main sources, say, either Robert Johnson, Lemon Jefferson, Willie McTell or Leadbelly. The two Robert Johnson records on Columbia [King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vols. I & II] are obviously cornerstones. You'd have to get at least one of those. It's pretty hard to zone in on it, because some guys mightn't get into Robert Johnson and might prefer, say, Willie McTell. But if we try to break it down to the key blues albums, I think that either Robert Johnson record would have to be included.

Then Blind Boy Fuller is another favorite of mine, especially that album with Bull City Red and Sonny Terry, with "Pistol Slapper Blues" on it [Blind Boy Fuller (Blues Classics)]. I think that Broonzy album where he does "Banker's Eilues" [The Young Big Bill Broonzy (Yazoo)] is an important one, because he was broadening the scale. It's different from the ones he made around 1950, where it was blues plus ballads. The Best of Muddy Waters [reissued as Sail On (Chess) and as part of Muddy Waters (Chess)] is definitely an archetypal electric blues album.

Do you think albums by people such as Elmore James and Howlin' Wolf are important listening?

Oh yeah. You'd have to get The Real Folk Blues by Wolf, with "Spoonful" and "Shake For Me" [reissued in part on Howlin' Wolf (Chess)] for Hubert Sumlin's electric blues guitar. He's the great undiscovered, underrated lead player. And Wolf himself harks back vocally to Charley Patton, and, besides, he plays a little bit of slide guitar here and there, too — like on "Down in the Bottom." And his harmonica playing is important, even though everyone seems to write it off as just, "He plays harmonica." I think he plays good gut-bucket harmonica.

Which of Elmore James's albums would you single out?

It's hard to pin down one album for him, because there are so many oddball ones. I've got one on Ember Records — just sort of a bargain label — and it was reruns of some of his stuff, like "Sunnyland," "Standing at the Crossroads," and "Dust My Broom" yet again. I find that any Elmore James album is good. He played a Kay, I think, with some odd pickup.

For electric slide, Earl Hooker is another favorite of mine. There are three players who use that same famous lick: Earl Hooker used it on "You Shook Me" by Muddy Waters; Muddy uses it all the time; and I think it came from Robert Nighthawk, who did "Sweet Black Angel." He's got a very mellow slide sound, but it's all in standard tuning — nothing's in open tunings.

So let's see: Muddy's important; Elmore James is important; John Lee Hooker; Hubert Sumlin; and the man, Howlin' Wolf. I suppose the best thing to do after you get a couple of compilations is to see which person really turns you on, then try to follow that strain.

What about the older country blues players?

In terms of intensity, Son House has to be listened to. Of all the blues players, that's probably the closest connection with Africa. I've got that one album, with "John the Revelator" [Legendary Father of Folk Blues (Columbia)]. That's an ace album.

If people come to hear you in concert, and they want to learn how to play guitar themselves.

Do you think it's more important for them to buy your records or these old records you spoke of?

To learn guitar? Well, I write a lot of my own stuff, so it's a cross between ego and the heritage thing. If you want to play like Rory Gallagher, I think you'd buy my records. But if you want to pick up on whatever echoes of the bluesmen that I respect and love, certainly go ahead and buy some blues records.

In my case, I'd say the obvious influences would be Hubert Sumlin, Earl Hooker and Buddy Guy, electrically. And, acoustically, Blind Boy Fuller and Blind Blake, though I can't get anywhere near what Blake does.

But you see, I never started out to become a strict re-creator of the blues or even a modern young bluesman, as it were. I mean, I wanted to be me. I'm a huge blues fan, but I still have a bit of Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly hovering around in my head, plus certain folk people, such as Doc Watson — a pretty wide range of listening.

When you're performing, though, don't you consider yourself mainly a blues-oriented musician?

Yes, I do, but I think that I've always strived to forge ahead. At some point, when I'm 40 or 50, I hope I'll have a very distinct sound, as Elmore or Muddy did, so that when you turn on the radio, you’ll say, “That's Rory Gallagher.” It's a thin line between studying the blues and listening to an awful lot of it on one hand, and loving the stuff and doing some blues numbers in your own style on the other hand.

It's hard to break it down into percentages, because some nights we might do something like "Messing With the Kid," a well- known Junior Wells song, or "Bullfrog Blues," or "Rag Mama," the Blind Boy Fuller tune. By the songs I pick to do, you can see the kind of people I like. I like the slightly ragtime-ish blues players, but then again, I like Hooker.

Acoustics

Your changes of style seem to depend in part upon what instrument you are playing. Whereas you seem to lean toward a lot of the acoustic ragtime blues people, when you play electric guitar you go into a completely different area of blues music.

Well, I'm a great fan of all the Kings — the Alberts, the B.B.s and the Freddies. I wouldn't want to say that these people have been overrated, because that would be an absolute insult, but I think they've been recognized to the point where the Earl Hookers and Hubert Sumlins have been underrated. And the guitar player who was with Wolf before Sumlin, Willie Johnson, was a hot player as well.

What type of instrument would you recommend for an acoustic blues novice to start on?

With acoustic guitar, for the first couple of years at least, I think you should leave a wound third string on and really build up strength in the fingers. In other words, don't try bending strings the first week you buy the guitar. Kids are lucky nowadays; you can get a Yamaha or something, and the cheaper model guitars are much better quality than they were years ago when you got this stuff with terrible action.

The first guitar I got cost just over four pounds, which was about 20 dollars then, in the good old days. After a while you get that urge to say, "To hell with this — I'm going to bend this string" instead of sliding up. But you have to build that up.

But do you think a student should start out with, say, a wooden Yamaha or a metal-bodied National such as you sometimes play?

Well, let's put it this way: If you're a kid with ears the size of the moon and an amazing sense of direction, who heard Son House or Blind Boy Fuller or any of the National steel-body players and said, "They're the people I want to play like," then go ahead and buy the National, because that's a great place to start. But if you start with a National, you're talking about a guitar that weighs quite a bit.

Do you find that the National has any technical problems or limitations in terms of sound?

Well, on the one I have, the neck joins the body at the 12th fret, which is unfortunate. I prefer the 14th fret, but I can live with that. You just have to ride over the body with the slide. The action on it isn't bad, and the tuning is good. Obviously, it's loud and banjo-like, and there's only a certain amount of sustain in it, but I think that it slightly dictates what you play.

Could you explain that?

For instance, you don't really bend strings much on a National; you use it more as a straightforward, heavy-playing ragtime guitar, or you play in the Son House bottleneck school.

Do you have any problems miking that guitar onstage, or do you use a contact pickup?

I've tried everything on it. I've tried contact mics, and they just don't work. You have to use the resonator as the microphone. I think Bill Lawrence is making a new pickup that fits onto five-string banjos — you just clamp it onto the end of the neck — so something like that might work. But it's debatable whether you'd be getting a true reproduction of that Resophonic sound. I just put a microphone in front of the resonator and hope for the best.

I use sort of medium-gauge bronze strings — I float around between Earthwood, Darco, Guild, and D'Merle — and you just build up power and volume yourself.

Do you use a wound or an unwound third string on the National?

A wound third, because the numbers I happen to play need that fairly stiff action. I don't do any Broonzy-type bending with light strings on the National, whereas on a Martin acoustic I probably would.

Do you use an acoustic onstage?

I do; I play a Martin D-35. I use the National for things like "Pistol Slapper Blues," which I play faster than Blind Boy Fuller did, and a J. B. Hutto song called "Too Much Alcohol," which he plays electric, of course. There's always the nature of the banjo in the National, I find, and you have to play it sort of like that. I do anyway.

Do you play acoustic with a plectrum or your fingers?

With a plectrum and the fingers. I fool around with National metal fingerpicks and the plastic ones sometimes.

How is your Martin set up?

Well, that's set up with the same strings, because at present I'm doing numbers like Leadbelly's "Out on the Western Plain," where the tuning is D, A, D, G, A, D [low to high]. It's a D tuning, except that the G remains a G.

That's a very English, folk, Baroque tuning à la Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. How do you use that playing the blues?

Yeah, that's right. Well, I'm a fan of that school. "Out on the Western Plain" was always one of my schoolboy favorites, because of the lyrics. I thought, Here's Leadbelly singing a song about cowboys and it didn't seem to be a part of the Black culture. But as it turns out, there were Black cowboys.

So I was fiddling around with slack D, or whatever they call it, and I found that there's an instant unison. If you use a two-fret interval on the second and third strings, you can go up like a dulcimer or a sitar. At any point up the neck, if you hit the second string at a certain fret and hit the third string two frets up, then those notes are the same. You get a kind of raga, dulcimer type of thing.

So it seemed such a nice idea to do the Leadbelly song in that semi-Celtic-cum-whatever style. It's never quite major or minor, so you can do tricks with it.

That particular tuning is from the English folk guitar school, isn't it?

Right. You can stick the Irish in there as well, because I'm sure bagpipe music had something to do with all of that, somewhere along the way. But that was what you could call a happy accident — getting that Celtic, British Isles, Baroque thing clashing with a blues song.

How do you have your Martin miked onstage?

I've got one of those little Ibanez bolt things. I find that the Ibanez has a bit more bite than the Barcus-Berry. If the place is small enough, I skip the pickup and play straight through the house microphone. I prefer to do that, because you can control the volume yourself. And when I use the contact pickup, I use the mike as well, so it's a blend of the two.

By controlling the sound with your hands, do you mean damping the strings?

Pressure on the strings, with your left or right hand. You can move slightly off mic or into the mic. You can just use yourself as a volume control.

How is that sound different from the contact mike?

Well, it's a fairly one-dimensional, compressed sound with a pickup, because, although it's as true as you can get to the natural acoustic sound, I don't think it's exactly there. But I can live with it. Ideally, what I'd like to have is another, lighter f-hole guitar onstage, with light-gauge strings for string-bending styles, but in the present repertoire I don't have any songs for that sort of thing.

What other acoustic things do you do?

I sometimes do this instrumental of my own called "Unmilitary Two-Step” — it's a cakewalk type of thing in C. I find that dreadnoughts need more medium-gauge strings, whereas the OM or f-hole models, the smaller ones, would obviously have to have light-gauge.

Electrics

What do you use for an electric guitar?

I have two different electrics. I have a Stratocaster with Fender light-gauge Rock and Roll strings, which I use for basic playing and some slide work in straight tuning. I also have a Telecaster for A tuning and other open tunings, for songs like "Bullfrog Blues."

Why the Stratocaster?

Well, that's the eternal argument among Fender fans. Buddy Holly had a Strat, and as a child you go after the appearance of a guitar; I don't care what anyone says. You look at the shape of the thing, and that's it. I've tried Gibsons, but I'm not a great fan of humbucking pickups.

Why is that?

Because as you bring down the volume from 10 to nine to eight, after that — forget it. The guitar loses its sensitivity and drive. Whereas with the single-coil or P-90 pickups — one of the old Gibson units with the black or white plastic covers — the volume control goes down nice and gradually, and even at six the guitar is still doing something.

I like a good bright tone, and I like the out-of-phase sound you can get with the switch set between the normal positions on a Strat. It's comfortable, the scale seems right, and I like having the machine heads on one side — it just seems to make sense. But if you want, say, a more luxurious, fatter sound, the Gibson guitar certainly would do the job, and it's got an extra fret — if anybody ever touches that fret; I'm sure they don't.

Is your Strat modified in any way?

It's practically straight off the rack. The only modification is that the tone control for the middle pickup is now a master volume control, because over the years I've found that when you jump from the middle pickup to the lead, or treble, pickup you couldn't adjust it.

Why do you usually switch to the Telecaster for slide?

I thought it had a certain steel-guitar type of tone which would work well with slide, but I was frustrated with the rhythm pickup — I thought it was too thin. So I put a Strat pickup there, and it remained that way for a year. Then I said, "To hell with it — I'll do the Telecaster à la Strat," so now I've got two Strat pickups and a Tele lead pickup and a five-way Strat toggle switch. It's like the best of both worlds with the Telecaster lead pickup, which is slightly hotter than a Stratocaster's.

Is it strung the same as the Stratocaster?

No, it's kind of a blend; it's more like medium-gauge. I have something like an .013 for the first, then .015, an unwound .018, and so on. On the Strat, it's as they come out of the packet — I think it's .010, .012, .015, .026, .032, .038. That seems to be about the most balanced set I could find. I would prefer something like an .040 on the bottom — which I sometimes stick on if I have it handy—because I think the bottom end is a little too light for me.

Is the action higher on the Telecaster for the slide work?

The action on the Strat is quite high as well. I like high action, like on an acoustic. The heavier-gauge strings on the Telecaster are a bit more taut anyway, so I don't have to raise the bridge. You can play not only slide, but regular guitar on it.

What do you use for a slide?

It depends; I shift around. I sometimes use a bottleneck on my ring finger for electric stuff. Otherwise I've got two stainless steel tubes, which I sometimes use on my small finger or the ring finger. They get a more stinging, Muddy Waters sound. You get a different sound depending on what slide you use. For instance, if you're playing slide on a National with a glass slide, forget it. You have to have something like steel or, even better, copper. Son House used copper, and I've got one of those as well.

Were these slides store-bought items, or did you just go to a hardware shop?

I went to a hardware shop and got the proverbial bit of piping chopped up and got a Brillo pad out and shone it up. There's a bit of surface noise there, but Son House has that sound; it's best, because it clings to the strings. I used to use copper on electric as well, but I found that the stainless steel was a pretty good compromise between the copper or bronze and the glass. Glass is nice, because it works a little more like a Hawaiian or lap steel guitar. It's sweeter and softer. I change my mind every couple of gigs.

With four guitars onstage—the Strat, the Tele, the Martin, and the National—is it difficult to adapt from one to another in terms of each instrument's feel?

I think you probably do it subconsciously if you play an awful lot. It never troubles me particularly; I just get ready for it. I know it's going to be slightly heavier strings or whatever.

For instance, on the National the neck joins the body at the 12th fret, but even though you have medium strings, you might be in D tuning, which is kind of slack anyway, so you're not called upon to bend the string up two tones or something. The only thing that throws me is moving from plectrum and fingers, which I use on the electric, to the thumbpick and fingerpicks. After doing, say, an hour of electric stuff, then switching to acoustic and putting on fingerpicks, I can't quite do it. If I were playing a straight folk club gig, I could probably manage it. When I'm playing around at home I just use my bare fingers, even on electric. Just the thumb and first finger, because that's another sound as well. There's a different arch involved in the hand.

Once in a blue moon all the odd tunings throw me, but I'm crazy about tunings. There's a lot that can still be done there. In the rock and roll field I don't think that that's been truly tapped yet.

Playing rock and roll in open tunings?

Well, not so much open tunings, but the odd tunings like DADGAD, or that kind of Celtic one Davy Graham was using — E A D E A E. It’s another bagpipe one.

Amplification

What type of amplification do you use?

For years I used a Vox AC-30, which is the best all-around European amp I've ever come across. I still have it. The Shadows used to use them and the Beatles used them, so you know it was the popular amp. But I found that when using the treble booster, if I used the normal input — which was very bassy, as opposed to the brilliant input — I could get that nice rough edge without getting into a very fuzzy sound. I used that for years, and I've had odds and sods in between, but then I moved on to an old ’50s tweed Fender Twin, which I still have. Then I got into a tweed Fender Bassman, and recently I got a Fender Concert, which is an old brown one, from around 1959, with four 10-inch”speakers. I use a Hawk booster through that just to roughen it up a bit, or if it's a quiet number I plug straight in and keep the guitar clean sounding.

Do you feel that the old Fender amps are better than the newer Fenders?

They seem to warm up sooner. They wouldn't have the wide tonal range that the new Fenders have — particularly the new Fender Super Twin, which has a graphic equalizer, a master volume control, overdrive, and all that — but I probably have some interest in old amps over and above the actual music because of their appearance and because the guys in the ’50s used them. But I do find that they really have an atmospheric sound.

I've never been a fan of the hundred-watt stacks; that just hasn't appealed to me. I always like a Twin or a 4x10 speaker setup. And some of those hundred-watt stacks really only give you about 50 watts, while an AC-30 is a genuine 30 watts. Instead of a wall of sound, where you lose your song because it's spread out among eight speakers, I'd rather see a small amp turned to eight or nine and really hopping off the chair.

Do you use the same setup in the studio?

Yes, same thing, plus I have an old Magnatone, which went out through Sears-Roebuck in the States. Generally, I end up using the AC-30 or one of the old Fenders. I like to do lead parts live, so you obviously have to have an amp that will be fairly loud, so the other guys in the studio can hear you.

Picking vs. Fingers

Do you think it's advantageous to learn acoustic before moving on to electric?

Well, I played acoustic for two or three years before I bought an electric. I wasn't particularly interested in electric for the first couple of years, because I was a Lonnie Donegan fan. I think it's better to start on acoustic and then get into electric, but you could get into a fistfight over that. I mean, some people would say, "To hell with acoustic guitar; it never existed. You've got to get a solidbody right away." Fair enough, but I think they're missing out.

Even if you're going to become the consummate 1978 electric guitarist, I think you're missing out on an awful lot, if only for the fun of playing an acoustic guitar at home as a hobby. And it's nice to go from the acoustic, where even at the best of times the action is fairly taut, to the electric with light strings, where you float around like jelly. If you're always playing on light- gauge strings, you'll never really build up strength and subsequently real volume without turning up your amp yet again.

Are there any other techniques that you can adapt from acoustic to electric?

If you never played acoustic the odds would probably be three-to-one that you might never get into, say, playing with a plectrum and fingers or ever get interested in the various acoustic right-hand things. I think if you're just playing with a flatpick full-time, you're only half playing the guitar.

When you use both the flatpick and your fingers, are you fingerpicking with the middle and ring fingers?

Yes, sort of a James Burton type of thing. Obviously, if you're just chopping chords you don't use the fingers. Sometimes you might do the little harmonic tricks where you clip the string and get a squeal, but if you want to get a jingly-jangly thing, use your fingers.

Where did you pick that up?

I began playing just straightforward plectrum style, but as things went along it just seemed to fall into place. Besides I played in some dance bands and show bands in Ireland, where as often as not we didn't have a rhythm guitarist, so you'd play the rhythm part as well as the lead. Say you were doing a Shadows song — they were like the English Ventures — you'd have to fit in the melody and a form of rhythm. That's probably where I got it from, plus Ricky Nelson records with James Burton on guitar. He was obviously using his thumb and fingers or a pick and fingers.

So would you advise learning to fingerpick with bare fingers, with fingerpicks, or with a plectrum and the fingers?

Well, if you could wave a magic wand, you should tell the person to try all forms and be familiar with them all — anything instead of just using the plectrum alone. I think at some point in every song you're going to need the fingers. If you're interested in classical guitar, it's nice to get a couple of years training at that, and then you'd have very strong hands, and you could skip thumb picks and metal picks or whatever.

Do you use fingerpicks mainly for volume, or do you use them for a specific sound?

I would use them for volume, you know, and to save wear and tear. If I were a highly developed thumb-and-fingers person I'd just use the bare skin, but you do get the real sharp, biting sound with the metal claws. Gary Davis just used the one plastic fingerpick, and he seemed to make great sense out of that.

Do you see any advantage to the plectrum and fingers over thumbpick and fingerpicks?

The advantage of the plectrum and fingers is that you can forget about the fingers at certain points where, say, you're doing a Buddy Holly number or an Eddie Cochran thing or a modern blues, where the fingers don't really come in, where you really have to sledgehammer the guitar. If you were trying to play a rock and roll or electric blues thing, fingerpicks might become a little bit cumbersome — although they never seemed to get in Freddie King's way. He only used the thumbpick and one metal fingerpick, which surprised me.

Then there's an English guitarist, Tony McPhee, who plays with the thumb and one finger. I think John Hammond does it as well, although he picks, too. Johnny Winter plays with a thumbpick and his bare finger, kind of like Muddy Waters, although Muddy uses a pick on his index finger. Let's put it this way: If you want to play a lot of electric blues or electric blues-cum- rock or whatever, the plectrum plus the fingers is probably the best common denominator. Then acoustically you can imitate the Doc Watson style. But to be true to the old ethnic folk and blues traditions I guess you really should be at least familiar with using your thumb and fingers, because there are certain numbers where the plectrum is a hindrance.

Would a plectrum be a hindrance when you're slapping the string on some tunes?

I can get away with that, oddly enough, but that depends on how difficult the piece is. For instance, I don't think you could do a Blind Blake piece with plectrum and fingers, but you'd at least manage a version of it. It depends on how true to the old version you're trying to get. Maybe you're just playing it for fun; maybe you're doing it for very aesthetic reasons.

Most young guitar players nowadays, even if they've only been listening to people like the Beatles, must know that they couldn't do all those things with just a plectrum. Even like "Dear Prudence" on the Beatles' White Album — that's a D tuning or something, and Lennon is playing with his fingers. He's always been quite fond of that.

So you think it's very important for a student to learn to use fingers as well as a pick?

Yeah, even if he never touches folk or blues music. Of course, the sky's the limit nowadays, and I suppose for Chuck Berry rock and roll it doesn't matter too much, but even Keith Richard uses his fingers on things like "Honky Tonk Woman."

Effects

Do you use any effects devices?

Well, there are a million and one pedals around, and I have a phase shifter I use once in a blue moon in the studio, but I think that's been sort of overused. My favorite of all the gimmicks is the vibrato or tremolo — that old Bo Diddley sound. That's fantastic with distortion, because it really plays tricks with the rhythm and it foxes the player. I like to overdrive the amp, as opposed to using a fuzz box.

Better still, get a dirty Fender Champ and play the lead on that through a bigger amp. And I still prefer to get a wah-wah effect by working the guitar's tone control manually. I think it's more fun, and that's where the Fender guitar comes in and has a slight advantage over most Gibsons. Most Gibsons have two volume controls and two tone controls, and they're too far away to reach, and that's a bit of a drag. The Strat is ideal, because you can get the crying sound with the volume and tone controls.

Guitar Essentials

Do you think it's important for a guitarist to learn to read music?

I did it by ear, listening to records. I never had a teacher, and I regret that I can't read music. I went into the library once and got Teach Yourself How io Read Music or something, and it said, "Sit down at your piano." We didn't have a piano, so that went down the chute. Then I worked out F, A and C and gave up, because I was too impulsive, and I was already delighted that I could play "Lost John" and a couple of other songs.

Then, next thing, I was playing blues and rock and roll, which is fairly instinctive and primitive stuff anyway. But later on you start getting beyond the open tunings and ragtime blues, you know, and you're listening to someone like Django Reinhardt or modern jazz guitarists, even bossa nova stuff like Charlie Byrd, and you begin to feel a little inadequate if you're an all-around guitar fan. So you get a couple of books on chords and try to make sense of that. That's where the reading would probably come in. It would help if you were a bit of a jazz fan.

When recording with other musicians, do you find that not knowing written, music limits your ability to communicate ideas in the studio?

No, that's no problem, because you can hum it to them or play it on the guitar. I don't think that's the drawback. The only drawback is if you were interested in playing a classical piece verbatim, or you wanted to play a Charlie Christian solo and really wanted to find out all the notes that he played and the harmony and theory thing behind it. Sometimes you say, "To hell with it; it doesn't matter anyway," but it kind of does matter. I'd say a year or two of just learning a little bit of theory wouldn't do any harm. Even tablature foxes me; I have no head for mathematics.

What advice could you give in terms of practicing the guitar?

Well, it's like the old cliche: You have to love the instrument and the idea of the instrument and the whole aura of the thing, and that will dictate how much you practice, really. I don't think you have to sit down for eight hours a day or anything, but if you're really interested you'll probably do that anyway in the early stages — and even after that, between trying to write songs and experimenting with notes and loosening your fingers. I think you're bound to get in an hour or two a day anyway, although some guys say they only play five minutes a day outside the gig.

Do you find yourself playing a lot during the day?

Quite a lot, yeah, in fits and starts. If I have a complete day off I play a bit after breakfast, for lateen minutes or so, to begin with.

Are there any specific exercises you play?

Nothing specific, no. I just try to get the old muscles loosened. Sometimes I'm working on a song, or I might play along with a record for the hell of it. You try not to be lazy; you try to do something that's a step ahead. The best all-around thing is a ragtime piece or a classical piece. Even if you're the hammiest classical player in the world — which I am — it's very good exercise.

On acoustic guitar?

On acoustic, yeah. Of course, on electric this is where the famous fingers-and-plectrum come in. See, if you're playing electric guitar on your own, and the guys in the band aren't around, it's very hard to just play notes. You're bound to start sticking in a chord and keeping the A string going while you're doing a bit of lead. It seems inevitable, you know.

Could you offer any advice for guitarists wanting to become professionals?

If you wanted to get into, say, electric blues, I'd get into a band as soon as possible, no matter how bad it is. Don't be too proud — get into some kind of band; get playing with a drummer. That's essential for electric blues. If you want to play acoustic music on your own, just hurry up and get a gig if you can. Get out there and play in front of people.

You feel that playing in front of people is an important thing to do as soon as possible?

Yes, it brings something out. I know for a fact that if I'm off the road for a long spell, even if I'm rehearsing like mad and playing a lot at home, the real crunch comes when I get out in front of people. The things you thought were really hot in rehearsal don't make any sense, because quite often you've forgotten the basic drive.

In rehearsals sometimes the basics get glossed over, because you're fooling around too much with the frilly stuff. If you get out there in front of an audience, drop your pick or break a string, that toughens you up, and it brings out projection in your playing. You have to direct your playing somewhere — unless you want to sit in a room like the painter looking at the painting he's just done, and he won't show it to anybody.

You do get people like that, who think there's no one in the city who's good enough to play with. But even acoustic players should get to a folk club and listen to other people, play with other people. There's always a thin line between studying the old records by the old masters and trying to develop yourself. I think both can be done at the same time, because if you forget the old masters you miss out on a whole heritage and a whole world, really.

But you shouldn't get too clogged up with the old stuff to the point where you won't be moving on yourself, because you won't end up like an old master yourself anyway, you know?

Rory Gallagher’s instantly recognizable heavily worn Fender Stratocaster has sold at auction for $1.16 million and will be donated to the National Museum of Ireland to further its legacy.

The sale comes as welcome news to the growing movement determined to keep the guitar on Irish shores. The instrument was purchased by Live Nation Gaiety Ltd. — a joint partnership between the ticketing firm and a Dublin theater — to ensure its future as a museum piece for music enthusiasts.

The guitar, which Gallagher purchased in 1963, is the first Stratocaster to arrive in Ireland and has been in the care of Gallagher’s brother and former manager, Dónal, since his death in 1995. Looking after the instrument, which included loaning it to museums and exhibits, had taken its toll on the Gallagher family. Dónal, who recently underwent successful treatment for cancer, said auctioning the guitar had been a “difficult decision."

“I couldn’t help thinking, What happens after my demise?” he recently told Guitarist. “And I suppose being hospitalized myself brought that into sharper focus. The guitar has got a life of its own and it’s got to move on.”

Gallagher also cited the mounting storage costs and stress of being away from the instrument during the pandemic — it was in a U.S. museum when the world went into lockdown — as other reasons for its sale.

The announcement that the guitar would head to auction caused a stir in the guitar world in recent months as efforts were initiated to stop its sale.

The daughter of the music store owner who sold the guitar to Gallagher established a GoFundMe page to raise one million euros — about $1.1 million — to keep the guitar in Ireland as the centerpiece of a “music museum” in Gallagher’s hometown of Cork.

Members of the Irish government extended support to the campaign. Underscoring the guitar’s cultural significance, Michael Martin, Ireland's deputy prime minister, said, “Rory was one of the first to put Irish rock on the international stage.” The campaign ultimately fell short of its target.

The $1.16 million sale makes Gallagher's Strat one of the most expensive guitars ever sold at auction. Other notable guitars in that category include Eric Clapton’s “Blackie” Strat ($959,000), and David Gilmour's Martin D-35 ($1,095,000). Kurt Cobain's MTV Unplugged Martin D-18E acoustic guitar currently holds the top spot after selling for more than $6 million in 2020.

Joe Bonamassa was first in line to celebrate the news that Gallagher's Strat would remain in Ireland. Taking to Instagram, he wrote, “The best news I have heard all year. Bless them for keeping this guitar in Ireland. Congratulations to the Gallagher family for such an incredible auction. I know it was a heavy and emotional day.”

Dónal Gallagher says his family has been “overwhelmed by the response to this auction” and the passion people have shown for his brother's legacy.

“It has been nearly 30 years since my brother's passing,” he reflects. “Though it was a difficult decision to part with this collection, I am grateful that these treasured instruments can now tour the globe as Rory did, spreading his music and memory.”

The Stratocaster was just one piece in the auction, which included a large number of Rory's electric guitars, amps and pedals.

Gallagher’s 1968 Martin D-35 acoustic sold for £102,000 ($132,000), while a stunning '30s-era National Triolian resonator fetched £95,000 ($125,000).

A 1963 Gretsch Corvette that had cost Gallagher a mere $150 sold for £25,600 ($33,000), with the late great’s quirky 1968 Coral 3S19 Electric Sitar amassing £11,520 ($15,000).

Lastly, Gallagher's '59 Fender Esquire, which was once crushed on an airport runway but survived, fetched £95,650 ($125,000). It still bears the scars of that fateful incident.

To see the full auction results, visit Bonhams.

Queen's Brian May is synonymous with the Red Special electric guitar, to the point where it's double-take-inducing to see anything else strapped 'round his shoulder.

There are the sentimental reasons for May's love of the model, of course – he built the original with his father while still in his teens – but he also simply struggled to connect, sonically, with two of guitardom's most common weapons of choice.

In Queen's early days – before they were stealing the spotlight at the biggest concerts in the world – May didn't have backup copies of the Red Special, let alone a company that manufactures replicas of it, leading him to occasionally turn to Strats and Les Pauls as a plan B when needed. Neither guitar, however, was to May's liking at all.

Speaking to GP in 2012, May explained, “I only used [the Strat and Les Paul] as spares because I didn’t have a decent copy of my guitar at that time. Neither of them really worked for me, though they work just fine for other people.

“The Les Paul,” he elaborated, “was too dull, the pickups whistled, and it had no trem. The Strat sounded painfully thin and didn’t sustain the way I wanted.

“I kept thinking, ‘It worked beautifully for Rory Gallagher with a similar [Vox AC30] amp setup.’ But for me it was just frustrating. In time we got the BM guitar copies going, and my problems were solved.”

Even before his Queen days, May had great admiration for Gallagher, recalling in a 2015 documentary that he'd be left “open-mouthed” by not only the latter's virtuosity and tone, but by his showmanship, which in particular would clearly inform Queen later on.

“We’d go and see Rory every week and [be] open-mouthed at the way the guy played, the person he was, and the way he interacted with his audience – the way he could just hold people by tapping his foot or his fingers or whatever he did,” May said. “He was just a magician as far as we were concerned, as an entertainer, and funny enough he probably wouldn’t think of himself as an entertainer.”

Incidentally, Gallagher's setup happens to be in the news at the moment, with his family's recent decision to sell his gear – including his iconic '61 Strat – at auction.

The Strat in particular is legendary enough that its impending sale attracted the attention of no less than some of the most prominent names in the Irish government, who have publicly expressed their desire to keep the guitar in the late blues guitar titan's home country.

The news that Rory Gallagher’s iconic Fedner Stratocaster is to be sold at auction this October has caused quite a chain reaction of events.  

First, the daughter of the man who sold Gallagher what's reported to be the first Fender Stratocaster to make its way to Irish shores – for £100 in 1963 – set up a fundraising campaign to buy the guitar and make it the centerpiece of a music museum in Cork. 

Now, senior political figures in Ireland are echoing the sentiments of the campaign, with the Irish government considering purchasing Gallagher's beloved six-string due to its national significance. 

The instrument first belonged to Jim Conlon of The Royal Showband. He then reportedly sold the guitar to Crowley’s Music Store in Cork, Ireland six months later, because he was upset that a sunburst model was sent instead of the red finish he’d ordered. 

Gallagher, who was 16 when he bought the instrument, paid for it in installments, and forged a reputation as one of the electric guitar’s greatest-ever players with it under his fingertips. 

He was rarely seen without it, leading his nephew Daniel to tell Guitarist, “truthfully, it was his wife.” 

The guitar is set to stand as the main feature of Bonham's "The Rory Gallagher Collection" during an auction in October, where it is estimated to fetch up to £1,000,000. 

The Irish deputy Prime Minister [Tánaiste] and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, Micheál Martin, says he is bringing the matter to the attention of the country’s Heritage Minister, Catherine Martin.

“I would love to [keep it in Ireland] if we could,” he stated. “I will talk to [Minister] Catherine Martin and see what is possible. But it would be lovely if we could get that guitar back on Leeside.”

He adds that during his spell as Lord Mayor of Cork (1992-93), he hosted a civic reception for Gallagher, having witnessed him prove why he is one of the nation’s most beloved guitar players.  

“I have very fond memories (of the civic reception) – he played in the Everyman Theatre,” he told The Irish Times. “His brother Donal was there on the night and I asked Donal if Rory would mind being honored tomorrow.

“Donal said he was extremely shy and that he shied away from all these kind of public events, but he did come in and we had a small group of about 40 people. I have very fond memories of that day in Cork City Hall.” 

Martin is tentative about what level of involvement the government can provide. However, conscious of the instrument's cultural significance, he says he is exploring his options. 

The current Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Dan Boyle, who saw Rory Gallagher play numerous times in the early '80s, has backed Martin's ambitions and called on the government to do what it can. 

“Rory Gallagher’s guitar is very distinctive and is probably one of the most recognizable guitars in rock history,” he says. 

“Rory was one of the first to put Irish rock on the international stage so it’s an important item culturally, and I think it’s important that it should be kept in the State, so that’s why I’ve made contact with Government departments and State agencies.” 

At the time of writing, the fundraising campaign, which has helped raise awareness of the importance of keeping the guitar in Gallagher’s homeland, has raised over €20,000 from over 400 donations. It has a target of €1m set.  

The Bonham's auction is set to take place on October 17. 

A fundraising campaign has been launched to buy Rory Gallagher’s prized Fender Stratocaster and keep it on Irish shores.

The GoFundMe campaign was created in response to news earlier this week that Gallagher’s famed Strat is to be sold at auction in October.

Its sale means it will leave his family’s care for the first time since Gallagher bought the guitar in 1963. It stands as part of Bonhams’ “The Rory Gallagher Collection,” with Gallagher’s family saying it was time for someone else to “cherish” the instrument.

Gallagher’s instantly recognizable six-string is said to be the first Fender Stratocaster to arrive in Ireland, having been ordered by Jim Conlon of The Royal Showband. However, he sold it six months later after a mix-up saw a sunburst model, not the red finish he’d ordered, shipped.

A then-15-year-old Gallagher subsequently bought the instrument for £100 from Crowley’s Music Store in Cork, and it remained by his side throughout his storied career.

It is Sheena Crowley, the daughter of the man who sold Gallagher the now-iconic guitar, who has set up the fundraiser.

“This guitar means so much to us in Cork, and we need to become the custodians of that magical guitar,” she writes on the GoFundMe page. “We feel tied to him and the guitar is a symbol of what he represents for us.”

That fundraising goal is set at €1,000,000, reflecting the £700,000 - £1,000,000 estimation set for the instrument by Bonhams, which would make it potentially one of the most expensive guitars to be sold at auction.

“Rory was someone who pushed the boundaries even at a time when 'Rock n Roll' was considered to be the devil's music!” Crowley’s statement continues. “He gigged in places that were being bombed. He dedicated his entire life to it.

“We must do this for him because we got so much from him, but we must also do it for our heritage.”

Since launching today (July 11), over €10,000 has been raised by over 100 backers. If successful, Crowley says she will approach the City Council, the Department of Heritage, and “wealthy benefactors” to match the million Euro figure. All backers will be fully refunded if the required funds are not raised.

Crowley is eager to establish what she is calling a “music museum” that honors her hometown’s heritage. The heavily-worn instrument – which was famously stolen from Gallagher in 1966 and found rotting in a ditch – will no doubt represent the jewel in the museum’s crown.

“The main attraction would be a dedicated Rory Gallagher section with an interactive theme to it,” Crowley envisions. “Fans from as far as Japan, Iceland, Germany, and so on would want the guitar to remain in Cork! We will have to move mountains.”

Since Gallagher’s passing in 1995, the guitar has remained in the care of Rory’s brother and former manager, Dónal.

His nephew, Daniel, once allowed Guitarist to get up close and personal with the cherished guitar, saying that his uncle “played it to death” and that “truthfully, it was his wife.”

Because of Gallagher’s ever-burning love for the instrument, news of its sale has come as a surprise.

However, with Dónal saying he hoped the sale of several pieces of gear from Gallagher’s collection would see “emblems of his legacy enjoyed by others,” it will be interesting to see in whose hands – or museum – the legendary instrument ends up.

Head to GoFundMe to learn more about the fundraiser, and to Bonhams for more details on the upcoming auction.

Rory Gallagher’s instantly recognizable 1961 Fender Stratocaster is set to be sold at auction, leaving his family’s charge for the first time. 

It was the Irish blues sensation’s weapon of choice as he carved out a superlative legacy as one of the world’s most inventive electric guitar players, across a career spanning three decades. 

Purchased by a then 15-year-old Gallagher for £100 in 1963 from Crowley’s Music Store in Cork, Ireland, and paid for in installments, it has been preserved by Rory’s brother and former manager, Dónal, since his passing in 1995. 

Now, Dónal believes the time is right for someone else to “cherish” the instrument. 

“Since 1995, I have always felt that there was a mission to be fulfilled to cement Rory's legacy and widen the knowledge of his music,” he says. “So, in what is one of the most difficult and sensitive decisions to reach, I have decided to facilitate the release of his instruments for sale, so that these emblems of his legacy can be enjoyed by others.”

The auction is being handled by Bonhams, which has previously sold iconic guitars once owned by Peter Green and George Harrison. Considering its history, it is set to be offered with an estimated value of £700,000 – £1,000,000 (up to approximately $1.3 million).   

The guitar represents the star piece in Bonham’s The Rory Gallagher Collection, which includes a select number of his guitars, amps, and virtuoso-approved accessories. 

While Gallagher played a number of electric guitars over the years, including a ’59 Fender Esquire, a ‘63 Gretsch Corvette, and a 1932 National Resonator, his Stratocaster was the one he was rarely seen without, and it has a storied past. 

The instrument first belonged to Jim Conlon of The Royal Showband, who was supposedly forced to play the sunburst model despite ordering a red finish. 

It’s said to be the first-ever Stratocaster to make its way to Ireland, but the accolade wasn’t enough for Conlon to keep hold of the instrument, and he sold it six months later. That led to Gallagher’s ‘63 purchase and, because of its rarity, the sunburst Strat quickly became synonymous with Gallagher’s talents.  

The guitar’s stripped and rugged look is a huge part of its palpable aura. Yet, while many will believe it’s the result of tireless touring beneath Gallagher’s fingers – and that is indeed a major contributor – it isn’t the only reason it looks the way it does. 

The guitar was stolen from Gallagher in 1966, with national TV channel RTE subsequently running a news report on its disappearance. 

Perhaps then realizing they’d bitten off more than they could chew, the thief discarded the instrument in a rainy ditch, where it was left for several days. 

The damage caused during those days broke the finish's resistance and Gallagher’s punchdrunk playing did the rest. 

Gallagher changed the pickups on the guitar several times, while a neck replacement was required after the guitar had soaked up too much of Gallagher’s sweat during his high-intensity live shows. Its original tuners and pickguard have also been replaced.  

Rory’s right-hand technique was notably aggressive, hence the number of pinch harmonics that would seep into his playing, and thus, the second pickguard has been split through playing, noticeable above the neck pickup. 

Allowing Guitarist to get up close and personal with Rory's cherished axe, Rory's nephew, Daniel, said “it meant a hell of a lot to him, and was a huge part of his sound.

“He played it to death. I don't think he would have swapped it for anything in the world,” he added. “Truthfully, it was his wife.”  

“Rory Gallagher’s 1961 Fender Stratocaster was an enormous part of his life and was with him from the very start of his career right until the end,” says Claire Tole-Moir, Head of Bonhams' Popular Culture Department. 

“It could be said that it was on this guitar that he carved out his legacy of being one of the greatest guitarists of all time.” 

The auction, which takes place on October 17, will surely stand as one of the most high-profile guitar auctions of 2024. If the final figure reaches the upper echelons of the estimate, it could become one of the most expensive six-strings to be sold at auction. 

Head over to Bonhams to find out more.

Rising U.K. blues guitartist Dom Martin has seen more than enough darkness in his lifetime. While struggling with his own demons in his early 20s, he watched as his father — his guitar mentor and chief musical inspiration — succumbed to the ravages of alcoholism. 

Martin has been kidnapped and beaten by thugs in Belfast, confident it would be his last stand. And his obsession with music has ruined most of his relationships with those brave enough to get close. 

But with four years of sobriety under his belt and a trio of acclaimed blues albums to his credit, Martin is beginning to see the light. 

“I have the capacity for change,” he says, speaking to Guitar Player from his home in Ireland. “And that’s strength, that’s resolve, that’s resilience. It took me a long time to realize that.” 

Martin plays like a man determined on his third and latest album, Buried in the Hail (Forty Below Records), alternating between furious, fuzz-laden licks on “Unhinged” and country slide-blues straight out of northern Mississippi’s Hill Country on “Daylight I Will Find” and “Belfast Blues.” 

His fretwork shines, particularly on the album’s quieter moments, while his fingerpicking shows the versatility of a committed guitar fanatic on the tracks “Hello in There” and “The Fall.”

“Music is the love of my life,” he says. “I get so much enjoyment from it now that I really don’t need anything else, and I’m willing to sacrifice everything for it.” 

With no question about his true north, Martin spoke with GP about his determination to make an album he could be proud of, the gear behind it, and how Rory Gallagher keeps popping into the frame. 

You grew up playing the blues in Ireland. How did you come up on guitar and music? 

My dad was a guitar player. He did pub gigs and club gigs, some session work. Very low-key. He was a very troubled man, but he was one of the best guitar players I’ve ever heard. 

For me and my dad, it was always an outlet, a form of therapy, and I would encourage everybody to pick up an instrument because it really does unlock something that’s missing in a lot of people. It’s a creative thing. If you come into it with the intent that it’s a competition, you’re already screwed. 

How did your father foster your interest in guitar? 

I always was asking him to teach me this, teach me that — just getting him to show me as much as I could. He took me to see [U.K. folk guitarist] Ralph McTell when I was about 10 years old, at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast. 

I realized just how good my dad was, because Ralph McTell’s a phenomenal guitar player — a really good fingerpicker and songwriter — and I realized that my dad was doing versions of his songs that Ralph McTell wouldn’t even be able to produce. My dad put more soul, life and heart into it. 

On your earlier records, you mostly played a kind of Chicago-style electric blues, but you’ve really dug into country blues and slide playing since then. 

This album is completely me. I didn’t let anybody compromise it whatsoever. I stuck to my guns on it the whole way through, from start to finish. I set the amps the way I wanted them set. I set the guitars up the way I needed them to be set up. 

Even in the mixing process, I was on the phone to them, I was emailing them, saying, “Don’t touch this. Leave it alone. I don’t care what your thoughts are on it. I really couldn’t care less if it sounds like crap to you. To me, that’s what I want. And I’m sticking to that.” 

One of the surprises on Buried in the Hail is how you turned the country standard “Crazy” into a minor-key blues dirge. 

I was outta my mind when I came up with the chord structure for that, and I was struggling with the lyrics, but they just fit so well for the time that I found myself in when I was getting this album together. 

I wrote the album in two days at a friend’s house in between tours, and the moment was just right. I had peace. I had quiet. I had all my equipment there in the van, and I set everything up and started writing, and I just flew. It was insane. 

I didn’t think we were gonna get permission to do that song. I’m very proud of that, because I wouldn’t want to just copy and paste what Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson had done. I wanted those lyrics to feel like I wrote them and for the song to feel a little bit original.

As you mentioned, you took full control over the guitar tones this time. Where did you begin? 

My Gibson ES-339, mostly. On most of the songs, that was the sound I wanted. The pickups are PAF types: ’59s [the Mule] from Bare Knuckle. After that, a place called House of Tone pickups sent me a set of their Peter Green PAFs [Tru PAFs]. 

I wish I’d have had them for the album, ’cause that’s the sound I needed. I was like, “Ah, if you had come to me a couple of months ago, that’s what would’ve been on that album!” 

But it’s a great guitar. I can’t take it on tour, ’cause I’m scared of losing it or breaking it, so it’s only gonna be on that album and maybe the next one. 

What amps and pedals do you pair those up with? 

I love tweed amps, even the newer stuff. I’ve never really tried anything older than, like, the ’90s era. I started with a Peavey Classic 50, and I’ll never part with it — that was my first valve amp. After that, I sold a guitar for a Fender DeVille tweed. It has the bias pot. I’ve painted that red and I use it with a Marshall 4x12, and that’s the setup at the moment. 

It’s alnico speakers — I’ve got two blues and one alnico cream in the 4x12, and some unidentifiable thing, but it sounds good. I use the same setup for acoustic that I do for electric, so there’s no need for a DI and different stuff.

I use a Flynn Amps Hawk boost, which is the Rory Gallagher signature pedal, and that goes into an overdrive pedal made for me by my amp tech. I have no idea what it is; I just like the sound it makes. 

And then in the effects loop, there’s a lot of stuff I don’t need. It’s overkill for, like, 90 percent of the stuff I do, but I like it at home for ambience and just finding stuff for the fun of it. 

Did Rory’s shadow loom large as a blues player in Ireland? 

Yeah. I was on tour with Eric Gales last year, and Izzy Buholzer [of Gulfcaster Custom Guitars] got in touch in Florida. He said, “Dom, I wanna build you a guitar.” I said, “I have no money, but if I ever do, I’ll get back to you, ’cause I’ve got a great idea.” 

He said, “Dom, you don’t understand. I’m gonna build you a guitar. I don’t want your money. I love what you do.” I said, “I always wanted to play a Strat, but I could never get along with them. Imagine Rory Gallagher’s Strat was always a Telecaster. That’s what I want.” 

It took him a couple of days to get back to me, but he did it. The scary thing is, I was in Holland doing a gig for Rory’s birthday at a festival, and the guitar got stuck at customs. It turned up at my house on Rory’s birthday while I was playing in Holland for his birthday. I couldn’t believe it. 

It’s a coincidence, but it’s like Rory’s trying to say hello or something.

Dom Martin's new album Buried in the Hail is available to buy or stream now

If ever a man let the music do the talking, it was Rory Gallagher. Onstage he wore the same old shirts and denims that he’d wear to the pub. His favorite guitar, a battered 1961 Stratocaster, looked like something he’d picked up from a flea market, its sunburst finish erased by all the sweat and wear and tear.

To Gallagher, what mattered was not how you looked but how you played. And he was simply one of the greatest guitar players that ever lived. He was so good that the Rolling Stones offered him a job in 1975, before Ronnie Wood was eventually chosen to replace Mick Taylor.

But Gallagher was never cut out for playing second banana to Jagger and Richards – he was a born leader, a virtuoso guitarist and a richly expressive singer. Moreover, he didn’t care for making hit records or playing by anybody’s rules but his own.

Gallagher was an explosive performer, a riveting entertainer, but he had no interest in flaunting or exploiting his wealth and fame. He refused to release singles, he never learned to drive, and he lived modestly in London.

Famous for his gentle and polite personality, Gallagher always made time for his fans. “He was such a purist,” Gary Moore once said. “He wouldn’t sell himself out. How many people do you know in the music business who would take that kind of stand? If there hadn’t been people like Rory around to set that example, it would probably spell the end of quality music.”

Born William Rory Gallagher on March 2, 1948, in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, he was a natural guitarist, but he never stopped listening, learning, perfecting and personalizing the age-old techniques of the blues.

Equally, there was nothing casual about his relationships with country music, country and western, folk, jazz, boogie, rock and roll, and hard-line, no-nonsense riff rock. Gallagher served his apprenticeship in a number of mediocre local bands before finding his true calling as guitarist/vocalist with blues-rock power trio Taste.

Between 1966 and 1970, the band made two acclaimed albums, opened for Cream at their farewell shows at the Royal Albert Hall, supported Blind Faith in America and appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival alongside Jimi Hendrix and the Who.

Despite Taste’s successes, Gallagher dissolved the band in 1970 to record and tour under his own name. And it was as a solo artist that he created his best work. Blues was always at the heart of his music, but his range extended from heavy rock and roll to folk. A purist to the end, he nevertheless sold more than 30 million albums over a 25-year period.

Gallagher’s love of the blues began early. It started with him tuning into the American Forces Network radio while growing up in Derry. “He’d somehow gotten the schedule of the programs,” recalls Rory’s brother and longtime manager, Donal, “because I remember he’d tune in for the Jazz Hour. It was like an obsession for him.

“But during that program they would also introduce some blues music. There was also a parallel to that on the BBC, which was the World Service. These were the initial places that Rory fed off for the blues.

“Then we moved to Cork City. He’d go in and grab books out on the blues at the library there – anything that referenced blues music. I suppose he saw parallels with the traditional music in Ireland and, coming from the background that we were coming from, there was a growing civil rights movement as well. So he’d sort of taken blues on as his adopted music.”

Gallagher died in a hospital on June 14, 1995, from complications arising from a liver transplant. He was 47 years old. He left behind a body of work that is revered. Even in death, he continues to serve as a role model for Irish musicians and an inspiration to all kinds of guitarists.

He is commemorated with a bronze statue in Ballyshannon, and a sculpture of his guitar at Rory Gallagher Corner in Dublin’s Temple Bar district. He was, and always will be, a true Irish folk hero.

Order Rory Gallagher’s Photo-Finish album here.

The Guyatone LG-40 is one of the plainest electric guitars I’ve ever owned. I usually write about guitars with sparkle finishes and loads of gadgets, but this one stands out for its complete lack of adornment.

It doesn’t even have the manufacturer’s name on it. Other Guyatones in the LG series, such as the LG-160 and LG-350, have distinctive designs, but this plain Jane has to settle for just playing and sounding nice.

Still in business today, Guyatone is one of Japan’s earliest guitar makers, having started building Hawaiian and Spanish-style guitars in the 1930s.

By the late ’50s, the company had branched into the field of musical electronics and made amplifiers, mics and record player cartridges, as well as a line of electric guitars.

From the late ’50’s into the ’60s, those guitars were distributed under so many nameplates – including Star, Guya, Ibanez, Fuji-Gen, Futurama and Kent – that it’s difficult to keep track of them all.

It appears that the name changed according to which country imported the guitars.

In the late ’50s, many British and Irish guitarists came to know Guyatone’s products under the Antoria brand. Among the more popular artists that played them were Hank Marvin, Rory Gallagher and Johnny “Guitar” Byrne of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, which featured a pre-Beatles Ringo Starr on drums.

In fact, Mr. Byrne played his Antoria/Guyatone LG all the way up until his untimely death at age 59 in 1999.

WEIRDO FACTOR

The body is just 10 inches wide at the lower bout. I have bigger ukuleles!

But beyond its weird proportions and very light weight (just under 5.5 pounds), this is actually a serious, if not extremely utilitarian guitar.

PLAYABILITY & SOUND

If you’re going to put only one pickup on a guitar, you have to make it sound good. In fact, this large single-coil sounds great. With the volume and tone controls wide open, it’s rich, punchy and bright.

Back off the tone knob and it thins out, as with a bridge pickup, but doesn’t get quieter, which makes it cool to use with distortion. Using the two knobs, I can dial in about three distinct sounds.

The 20-fret maple neck with rosewood fingerboard plays nice. It’s not wide, but it is deep and quite reminiscent of a ’50s Fender C-shape.

The non-intonatable bridge is height adjustable, but despite what appears to be a truss rod cover on the headstock, there’s nothing beneath it except more flame maple, which is featured on both the top and back of this weirdo.

VALUE

Though it plays and sounds good, the Guyatone LG-40 is in the collector books because it’s one of the earliest Japanese attempts at building a professional guitar.

As such, it garners some monetary respect, currently selling between $800 and $1,200. Mind you, I paid $50 for mine years ago (pre-internet) at a flea market!

WHY IT RULES

It’s light and sounds great, and the starkness of its design actually becomes a feature unto itself.

Besides, it can be traced back to the early days of the Merseybeat sound that went on to shape music as we know it today.

Got a whack job of your own? Feel free to get in touch with me at rtcarleton@gmail.com. Who knows? Maybe I’ll write about it.

Good news for Rory Gallagher fans: UMC has just announced that 50th anniversary editions of his 1971 LP Deuce will be out on September 30.

New releases in celebration of the Irish guitarist’s sophomore album will include the following:

• Quadruple CD deluxe set
• Double CD
• Triple vinyl
• Single colored vinyl BBC in Concert (D2C)
• Deluxe digital HD
• Deluxe digital standard

King of the hill is the quadruple CD deluxe set.

This awesome collection delves deep into the archives. Along with a fresh mix of the original album there is a massive twenty-eight previously unreleased alternate takes available to listen to.

A six-track 1972 BBC Radio In Concert recording along with seven Radio Bremen radio session tracks are also included.

A fan’s dream, the package contains a 64-page hardback book – including a foreword by Johnny Marr – previously unseen photos by the late Mick Rock, essays, and memorabilia from the album recording.

The double CD and triple vinyl releases are essentially cut down versions of the quadruple CD deluxe set.

Additionally, a special D2C colored vinyl of the BBC In Concert performance will be available.

One of the greatest blues-rockers there was, Gallagher’s matchless style attracted praise from some of best-known guitar players in music.

"There are a million guys who sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan,” said Slash, “but I never heard anybody who could really pull off sounding like Rory Gallagher.”

"He was just a magician,” remarked Brian May. “He’s one of the very few people of that time who could make his guitar do anything it seemed. It just seemed to be magic. I remember looking at that battered Stratocaster and thinking, How does that come out of there?"

Marr claims Gallagher changed his musical life entirely by inspiring him to pick up an electric guitar.

"There was one day when I was playing along with the Deuce album, which was a complete turning point for me,” recalled the Smiths guitarist.

You can pre-order any of the above here.

Today, on the anniversary of his passing, we remember Irish blues-rock legend Rory Gallagher.

Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, the first pieces Gallagher attempted to play were cowboy songs and Irish folk tunes on acoustic guitar, beginning at age nine.

American rock ‘n’ rollers such as Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Elvis Presley, and Chuck Berry had an early impression on the budding guitarist, though he discovered blues, à la Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, by way of Lonnie Donegan’s British skiffle hits.

At 15, Gallagher joined the Fontana Show Band, which toured England and Ireland. The constant work helped refine his playing, but the commercial nature of the repertoire caused him to look elsewhere for artistic satisfaction, jamming with the group's drummer and bassist in small clubs throughout Europe.

By 1966, Gallagher had formed Taste, the now legendary blues-rock trio, comprised of Eric Kitteringham on bass, Norman Demery on drums, and Gallagher on guitar, vocals, and, occasionally, saxophone.

In 1969, the group signed with Polydor Records, but had disbanded by the following year, at which point the guitarist began to pursue a solo career in earnest.

Throughout the ‘70s, Gallagher recorded a steady stream of solos albums, picking up legions of fans along the way and establishing himself as one of the era’s most influential guitarists.

In this interview extract from the March 1978 issue of Guitar Player, Gallagher talks about his various musical styles and techniques and the gear he used to arrive at his distinctive, energetic sound.

What he has to say about blues and rock ‘n’ roll should be required reading for any guitarist...

Hypothetically, if you were teaching blues guitar at a school, how would you go about it?

I’d keep it within a reasonably rigid blues framework, just to keep it on center. A lot of it would depend on what music the student had been exposed to.

I mean, if your parents were interested in music anyway – your father, for instance, had a couple of Bill Broonzy or Lonnie Johnson albums – or you were brought up listening to jazz programs on the BBC where they'd slot in the odd blues thing, you'd obviously have a head start.

Otherwise, you'd probably get into blues through rock 'n' roll – through Chuck Berry or maybe “High Heeled Sneakers” by Tommy Tucker. Then with the Rolling Stones era, you could sneak into the blues thing that way.

In my case, I started on the proverbial Lonnie Donegan skiffle music trail, where I heard Lonnie doing Leadbelly songs, such as “Rock Island Line” and “Bring Me A Lil' Water Silvy.”

Before I even owned records by Woody Guthrie or Big Bill Broonzy, I used to get library books out in Cork – because you couldn't buy the albums in Britain – and I’d learn the lyrics to these songs.

But at the same time I was interested in rock 'n' roll – such as Buddy Holly. Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino. I was listening to both of these strains, because at lots of points they'd cross.

Once you get beyond the Chuck Berry/Eddie Cochran thing, you begin to figure out that you've got Broonzy at one end of the scale – and that goes right back to the old tradition of Charley Patton – then John Lee Hooker has the Detroit electric blues style, which evolved from his acoustic style.

And you also get the Josh White sort of folkie style of blues. You just have to listen to a lot of records.

Which records do you think are essential for someone who wants to get into blues?

I suppose you'd have to go back to one of the main sources, say, either Robert Johnson, Lemon Jefferson, Willie McTell, or Leadbelly. The two Robert Johnson records [King Of The Delta Blues Singers, Vols. I & II] are obviously cornerstones; you'd have to get at least one of those.

It’s pretty hard to zone in on it, because some guys mightn't get into Robert Johnson and might prefer, say, Willie McTell. But if we try to break it down to the key blues albums, I think that a Robert Johnson record would have to be included.

Then Blind Boy Fuller is another favorite of mine, especially that album With Bull City Red and Sonny Terry, with “Pistol Slapper Blues” on it.

I think that Broonzy album where he does “Banker’s Blues” [The Young Big Bill Broonzy] is an important one, because he was broadening the scale.

It’s different from the ones he made around 1950, where it was blues plus ballads.

The Best Of Muddy Waters [reissued as Sail On] is definitely an archetypal electric blues album.

Do you think albums by people such as Elmore James and Howlin’ Wolf are important listening?

Oh yeah. You'd have to get The Real Folk Blues by Wolf, with “Spoonful” and “Shake For Me” [reissued in part on Howlin’ Wolf: the Chess Box] for Hubert Sumlin’s electric blues guitar.

He's the great undiscovered, underrated lead player. And Wolf himself harks back vocally to Charley Patton, and, besides, he plays a little bit of slide guitar here and there, too – like on “Down In The Bottom.”

And his harmonica playing is important, even though everyone seems to write it off as just, “He plays harmonica.” I think he plays good gut-bucket harmonica.

Which of Elmore James's albums would you single out?

Its hard to pin down one album for him, because there are so many oddball ones. I've got one on Ember Records – just sort of a bargain label – and it was reruns of some of his stuff, like “Sunnyland,” “Standing At The Crossroads.” and “Dust My Broom” yet again.

I find that any Elmore James album is good.

What about the older country blues players?

In terms of intensity, Son House has to be listened to. Of all the blues players, that's probably the closest connection with Africa. I've got that one album, with “John the Revelator.” [The Legendary Father Of Folk Blues] That's an ace album.

If people come to hear you in concert, and they want to learn how to play guitar themselves, do you think it's more important for them to buy your records or these old records you spoke of?

To learn guitar? Well, I write a lot of my own stuff, so it's a cross between ego and the heritage thing.

If you want to play like Rory Gallagher, I think you'd buy my records. But if you want to pick up on whatever echoes of the bluesmen that I respect and love, certainly go ahead and buy some blues records.

In my case, I’d say the obvious influences would be Hubert Sumlin, Earl Hooker, and Buddy Guy, electrically; and, acoustically, Blind Boy Fuller and Blind Blake, though I can't get anywhere near what Blake does.

But you see, I never started out to become a strict recreator of the blues or even a modern young bluesman, as it were. I mean, I wanted to be me.

I'm a huge blues fan, but I still have a bit of Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly hovering around in my head, plus certain folk people, such as Doc Watson – a pretty wide range of listening.

What type of instrument would you recommend for an acoustic blues novice to start on?

With acoustic guitar, for the first couple of years at least, I think you should leave a wound third string on and really build up strength in the fingers. In other words, don't try bending strings the first week you buy the guitar.

Kids are lucky nowadays; you can get a Yamaha or something, and the cheaper model guitars are much better quality than they were years ago when you got this stuff with terrible action.

The first guitar I got cost just over four pounds, which was about twenty dollars then, in the good old days.

After a while you get that urge to say, “To hell with this – I’m going to bend this string,” instead of sliding up. But you have to build that up.

But do you think a student should start out with, say, a wooden Yamaha or a metal-bodied National such as you sometimes play?

Well, lets put it this way: If you're a kid with ears the size of the moon and an amazing sense of direction, who heard Son House or Blind Boy Fuller or any of the National steel-body players and said, “They're the people I want to play like,” then go ahead and buy the National, because that's a great place to start.

But if you start with a National. you're talking about a guitar that weighs quite a bit.

Do you use a wound or an unwound third string on the National?

A wound third, because the numbers I happen to play need that fairly stiff action. I don't do any Broonzy-type bending with light strings on the National, whereas on a Martin acoustic I probably would.

Do you use an acoustic onstage?

I do; I play a Martin D-35. I use the National for things like “Pistol Slapper Blues,” which I play faster than Blind Boy Fuller did, and a J.B. Hutto song called “Too Much Alcohol,” which he plays electric, of course.

There's always the nature of the banjo in the National, I find, and you have to play it sort of like that. I do anyway.

Do you play acoustic with a plectrum or your fingers?

With a plectrum and the fingers. I fool around with National metal fingerpicks and the plastic ones sometimes.

How is your Martin set up?

Well, that's set up with the same strings, because at present I'm doing numbers like Leadbelly’s “Out On The Western Plain,” where the tuning is D - A - D - G - A - D [low to high]. It’s [open] D tuning, except that the G remains a G [rather than major third/F#.]

What do you use for an electric guitar?

I have two different electrics. I have a [Fender] Stratocaster with Fender light gauge Rock And Roll strings, which I use for basic playing and some slide work in straight tuning.

I also have a [Fender] Telecaster for A tuning and other open tunings, for songs like “Bullfrog Blues.”

Why the Stratocaster?

Well, that's the eternal argument among Fender fans. Buddy Holly had a Strat, and as a child you go after the appearance of a guitar; I don't care what anyone says. You look at the shape of the thing, and that's it. I've tried Gibsons, but I'm not a great fan of humbucking pickups.

Why is that?

Because as you bring down the volume from 10 to 9 to 8, after that – forget it; the guitar loses its sensitivity and drive.

Whereas with the single-coil or P-90 pickups – one of the old Gibson units with the black or white plastic covers – the volume control goes down nice and gradually, and even at 6 the guitar is still doing something.

Why do you usually switch to the Telecaster for slide?

I like a good bright tone, and I like the out-of-phase sound you can get with the switch set between the normal positions on a Strat.

Its comfortable, the scale seems right, and I like having the machine heads on one side – it just seems to make sense.

But if you want, say, a more luxurious, fatter sound, the Gibson guitar certainly would do the job, and it's got an extra fret – if anybody ever touches that fret; I'm sure they don't.

I thought it had a certain steel guitar type of tone which would work well with slide, but I was frustrated with the rhythm [neck/front] pickup – I thought it was too thin. So I put a Strat pickup there, and it remained that way for a year.

Then I said, “To hell with it – I’ll do the Telecaster à la Strat,” so now I've got two Strat pickups and a Tele lead pickup and a five-way Strat toggle switch.

It’s like the best of both worlds with the Telecaster lead pickup, which is slightly hotter than a Stratocaster’s.

What do you use for a slide?

It depends; I shift around. I sometimes use a bottleneck on my ring finger for electric stuff; otherwise I've got two stainless steel tubes, which I sometimes use on my small finger or the ring finger. They get a more stinging, Muddy Waters sound.

You get a different sound depending on what slide you use. For instance, if you're playing slide on a National with a glass slide, forget it.  You have to have something like steel or, even better, copper. Son House used copper, and I've got one of those as well.

What type of amplification do you use?

For years I used a Vox AC30, which is the best all-around European amp I've ever come across. I still have it. The Shadows used to use them, and the Beatles used them, so you know it was the popular amp.

But I found that when using the [Dallas Rangemaster] treble booster, that along with the treble boost you got a built-in gain, because the transistors were fairly primitive.

If I used the normal input – which was very bassy, as opposed to the brilliant input – I could get that nice rough edge without getting into a very fuzzy sound.

I used that for years, and I've had odds and sods in between, but then I moved on to an old Fifties tweed Fender Twin, which I still have.

Then I got into a tweed Fender Bassman, and recently I got a Fender Concert, which is an old brown one, from around 1959, with four 10” speakers.

I use a Hawk booster through that just to roughen it up a bit, or if it's a quiet number I plug straight in and keep the guitar clean sounding.

Do you think it's advantageous to learn acoustic before moving on to electric?

Well, I played acoustic for two or three years before I bought an electric. I wasn't particularly interested in electric for the first couple of years, because I was a Lonnie Donegan fan.

I think it's better to start on acoustic and then get into electric, but you could get into a fistfight over that. I mean, some people would say, “To hell with acoustic guitar; it never existed. You've got to get a solidbody right away.”

Fair enough, but I think they're missing out. Even if you're going to become the consummate 1978 electric guitarist, I think you're missing out on an awful lot, if only for the fun of playing an acoustic guitar at home as a hobby.

And it's nice to go from the acoustic, where even at the best of times the action is fairly taut, to the electric with light strings, where you float around like jelly. If you're always playing on light-gauge strings, you'll never really build up strength and subsequently real volume without turning up your amp yet again.

Are there any other techniques that you can adapt from acoustic to electric?

If you never played acoustic the odds would probably be three-to-one that you might never get into, say, playing with a plectrum and fingers or ever get interested in the various acoustic right-hand things.

I think if you're just playing with a flatpick full-time, you're only half playing the guitar.

So would you advise learning to fingerpick with bare fingers, with fingerpicks, or with a plectrum and the fingers?

Well, if you could wave a magic wand, you should tell the person to try all forms and be familiar with them all – anything instead of just using the plectrum alone.

I think at some point in every song you're going to need the fingers.

If you're interested in classical guitar, it's nice to get a couple of years training at that, and then you'd have very strong hands, and you could skip thumbpicks and metal picks or whatever.

Do you use fingerpicks mainly for volume, or do you use them for a specific sound?

I would use them for volume, you know, and to save wear and tear.

If I were a highly developed thumb-and-fingers person I’d just use the bare skin, but you do get the real sharp, biting sound with the metal claws.

Gary Davis just used the one plastic fingerpick, and he seemed to make great sense out of that.

So you think it's very important for a student to learn to use their fingers as well as a pick.

Yeah, even if they never touch folk or blues music. Of course, the sky's the limit nowadays, and I suppose for Chuck Berry rock 'n' roll it doesn't matter too much, but even Keith Richards uses his fingers on things like “Honky Tonk Woman.”

Do you think it's important for a guitarist to learn to read music?

I did it by ear, listening to records. I never had a teacher, and I regret that I can’t read music. I went into the library once and got Teach Yourself How To Read Music or something, and it said, “Sit down at your piano.” We didn't have a piano, so that went down the chute.

Then I worked out F, A, and C and gave up, because I was too impulsive, and I was already delighted that I could play “Lost John” and a couple of other songs.

Then, next thing, I was playing blues and rock 'n' roll, which is fairly instinctive and primitive stuff anyway. But later on you start getting beyond the open tunings and ragtime blues, you know, and you're listening to someone like Diango Reinhardt or modern jazz guitarists, even bossa nova stuff like Charlie Byrd, and you begin to feel a little inadequate if you're an all-around guitar fan.

So you get a couple of books on chords and try to make sense of that. That's where the reading would probably come in; it would help if you were a bit of a jazz fan.

When recording with other musicians, do you find that not knowing written music limits your ability to communicate ideas in the studio?

No, that's no problem. Because you can hum it to them or play it on the guitar. I don't think that's the drawback; the only drawback is if you were interested in playing a classical piece verbatim, or you wanted to play a Charlie Christian solo and really wanted to find out all the notes that he played and the harmony and theory thing behind it.

Sometimes you say. “To hell with it; it doesn't matter anyway,” but it kind of does matter. I’d say a year or two of just learning a little bit of theory wouldn't do any harm. Even tablature foxes me; I have no head for mathematics.

What advice could you give in terms of practicing the guitar?

Well, it's like the old cliché: You have to love the instrument and the idea of the instrument and the whole aura of the thing, and that will dictate how much you practice, really.

I don't think you have to sit down for eight hours a day or anything, but if you're really interested, you'll probably do that anyway in the early stages – and even after that, between trying to write songs and experimenting with notes and loosening your fingers.

I think you're bound to get in an hour or two a day anyway, although some guys say they only play five minutes a day outside the gig.

Could you offer any advice for guitarists wanting to become professionals?

If you wanted to get into, say, electric blues, I’d get into a band as soon as possible, no matter how bad it is.

Don’t be too proud – get into some kind of band; get playing with a drummer. That's essential for electric blues.

If you want to play acoustic music on your own, just hurry up and get a gig if you can; get out there and play in front of people.

You feel that playing in front of people is an important thing to do as soon as possible?

Yes, it brings something out. I know for a fact that if I'm off the road for a long spell, even if I'm rehearsing like mad and playing a lot at home, the real crunch comes when I get out in front of people.

The things you thought were really hot in rehearsal don't make any sense, because quite often you've forgotten the basic drive.

In rehearsals sometimes the basics get glossed over, because you're fooling around too much with the frilly stuff. If you get out there in front of an audience, drop your pick or break a string, that toughens you up, and it brings out projection in your playing.

You have to direct your playing somewhere – unless you want to sit in a room like the painter looking at the painting he's just done, and he won't show it to anybody.

You do get people like that, who think there's no one in the city who's good enough to play with. But even acoustic players should get to a folk club and listen to other people, play with other people.

There's always a thin line between studying the old records by the old masters and trying to develop yourself. I think both can be done at the same time, because if you forget the old masters, you miss out on a whole heritage and a whole world, really.

But you shouldn't get too clogged up with the old stuff to the point where you won't be moving on yourself, because you won't end up like an old master yourself anyway, you know.

Order the Rory Gallagher 1971 debut solo album 50th anniversary edition here.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is Queen’s best-known song, and its brief nine-bar electric guitar solo is a short and sweet musical interlude, bridging the verses to lead into what’s become known as the song’s “operatic section.”

Those two words alone should warn you that this song shouldn’t work. There’s no chorus and, aside from two verses, no repetition. But of course it does work, and Brian May’s solo is the perfect melodic break.

His phrasing is loose and natural, moving across the backbeat rather than sticking to a rigidly timed grid. The fastest licks are expressive bursts, rather than repetitive noodling, and his articulate pre-bend and vibrato technique demonstrates his beautiful touch. Somehow, within the confines of the complex structure of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” this solo is made to order.

Here, we catch up with May to talk about the writing process and how he made the melody fit so perfectly with Mercury’s masterpiece.

What do you remember about the recording of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and how you created the solo for it?

This track had been evolving for a while. It was very much the product of the fevered brow of Freddie. We knew it was something very special. It was recorded in pieces, as I think everybody knows. We would rehearse and record. We’d do it until we got it right. The various bits were put together. Freddie put a guide vocal on, and then we started doing all the multitracked vocal harmonies.

There was already a rhythm guitar on there, of course. And somewhere during that process we talked about where there would be a solo, and that part of it Freddie hadn’t mapped out. He said he wanted a solo in there, and I said I would like to, effectively, sing a verse on the guitar. I would like to take it somewhere else. I would inject a different melody. There was already a lot of color in there, but I would like to have a free hand. And I could hear something in my head at that point, long before I went in there and played it.

As you’re remembering this, can you picture you all in the studio?

It’s funny, because you see this in the Bohemian Rhapsody film. It’s quite faithfully reproduced, the way the Brian May character says, “Okay, how about this?” And Freddie’s going, “Oh, lovely. But can you try a bit more of this?”

And the idea you had in your head, was that exactly how the solo came out?

Yeah. I basically sang it. I regard the guitar in that situation as a voice. I could hear this melody and I had no idea where it came from. That melody isn’t anywhere else in the song, but it’s on a familiar chord sequence, so it dovetails in quite nicely. And of course the job of the guitar solo is to bring that extra voice in, but then it’s a link into what everybody now calls “the operatic section.” You know you’re into something very different.

Did the solo require multiple takes?

It came out very easily. I didn’t do many takes. It was one of those occasions where you do a few takes, and then you go back and listen to the first one, and the first one is almost exactly what you want. You just need to trim it a little bit and polish it up.

And the climax of the song is very heavy on guitar.

The bit where everybody does the head-banging? That’s just riffing, and that was much more Freddie’s idea than mine. He had that riff in his head and I just played what he wanted there. I think he just sang it to me, what he wanted. We went for it live in the studio.

The different tones in that song, from the clean sounds in the solo to the distortion in the heavy part – how did that work?

It’s all about Vox AC30s and the [Dallas Rangemaster] treble booster, which was all inspired by Rory Gallagher. There’s really very little else on my guitar. There are no effects boxes as a rule. I used delays and stuff, but the fundamental tone that you hear is the guitar and the treble booster and the AC30.

And the AC30 gives it that incredible throat, which is variable. The more you turn it up, the more it goes into saturation. It doesn’t distort that much, and you’re still in the position at about nine and a half, where you can still play chords and they still sound like chords. It doesn’t sound like a big fart. [laughs]

So it’s a unique thing and we know why that is now, because the AC30 is fundamentally a Class A amplifier, and because of the way the valves are used. They’re biased halfway up, so they don’t distort until you drive them very, very hard, and then they go smoothly into that distortion. So that’s the whole thing. I get so used to that being the way that the guitar speaks, I take it for granted.

There’s something about the tone of that solo. Maybe the way you pick, or the metal picks you use?

The pick has a little bit to do with it, definitely. It all adds up to that incisive tone. These days I’m using the pick less and less, and I find that I can get all of that range of sound using the fingers. It’s odd. I don’t know why that is. Maybe because I play more and more at home, and there isn’t always a pick at hand, I just end up using fingers. But I also find I get more expression out of the fingers these days, and I like it that way. Probably live I’ll never do that, because live, people want to hear it the way it was on the record. But it’s always slightly different every night. Although I’m playing that solo almost note for note, it always comes out differently, because of the different feelings going through my head or the fingers falling in different places. But that’s the closest to a set piece that I have, I suppose.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” was Freddie’s masterpiece. Did that make it more of a challenge for you to create that solo?

There was a lot of interaction, and I think that was part of the magic that we had. We gave each other a lot of stick, really, but in a very positive way. We were always pushing each other to try things. You know, one day Freddie had a big smile on his face when I came into the studio, and he popped a cassette into the player and said, “Listen to this, darling. This is going to surprise you.”

And what he’d done was spend the whole morning putting together all the guitar solos that he could find in the work that we’d done, and he’d strung them all together. It was quite amazing. And one of my big regrets is I can’t find that cassette! I never throw anything away. I’m a bit of a hoarder. So it ought to be somewhere. But Freddie was very proud of the stuff that I’d done and that we’d done together.

Pick up a copy A Night At the Opera here.

Witnesses to Rory Gallagher’s electrifying live shows knew what a formidable performer he was – coming back for encore after full-tilt encore, shredding with his battered ’61 Strat as long as the crowd cheered and stamped their feet for more.

Though synonymous with the Strat, Gallagher also famously used this 1959 Esquire on stage – notably for slide work. And in this classic clip filmed for The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1976, the Irish bluesman uses the heavily modded Fender to close the show at London’s Shepherd's Bush Empire with a supercharged rendition of “Souped-Up Ford” from his 1975 album Against the Grain.

The workhorse simplicity of this two-pickup Esquire belies its heavily modded history as one of Rory’s main electric guitars for slide work. “This guitar’s had so many changes,” said Rory’s nephew, producer Daniel Gallagher, in a recent interview. “Originally, it had a natural finish and a black pickguard – which you can see on the Beat Club Sessions – with white etchings on it from when he bought it.

“He put in the second [neck] pickup and made it a Telecaster, effectively. Then an incident happened at an airport where it fell off a loading trolley, and a van behind it with the next load of luggage drove over it. When he got it back, the body and finish were damaged. I think it was given to [English guitar luthier/designer/dealer] Chris Eccleshall to refinish.

“Rory said, ‘I need it back in two weeks, because I’m going on tour again.’ But in a certain light it looked green, and Rory kind of felt Chris was taking the mickey [ridiculing him] because he was Irish. Rory took it as a slight at first, but they made up and Chris painted it black.

“At a certain point, Rory put in a third pickup and turned it into a weird Esquire/Tele/Strat hybrid. He changed the pickups in that middle position a lot. You can see it on a Rockpalast [German TV] show around ’77 with that third pickup in. This and his white Tele were his two main guitars for electric slide until he got his Gretsch Corvette.”

Buy Rory Gallagher’s Against the Grain here.

Last week saw the release of the Rory Gallagher 50th Anniversary Box Set commemorating the Irish bluesman’s 1971 eponymous debut album. A must-have for any Rory Gallagher fan, this limited edition five-disc package includes a brand-new mix of the original album; 30 unreleased/alternative tracks; a 6-song BBC Radio John Peel Sunday concert from 1971; and 4 other BBC Radio session tracks.

In celebration of this epic release the Rory Gallagher tribute band Band Of Friends – fronted by the original bass guitarist on Gallagher’s debut album, Gerry McAvoy – will be performing a selection of songs from Rory Gallager in an unmissable, one-time-only livestream show.

Kicking off at 6PM BST today this 30-minute tribute performance can be viewed on Rory Gallagher’s official Facebook page and YouTube channel.

While Rory Gallagher was recently voted Ireland’s Greatest Music Artist in a pole hosted by Dublin radio station Newstalk, fans will also be treated to another 50-year celebration as the Museum of Reading commemorates the golden anniversary of the Reading Festival with their exhibition The 1971 Reading Festival: For the First Time.

The exhibition tells the story of the first Reading Festival while showcasing items from Gallagher’s archive, including his 1966 Fender Telecaster electric guitar and Vox AC30 amplifier.

Order the Rory Gallagher 50th Anniversary Box Set here.

In this mesmerizing video of Taste’s 1970 performance at the UK’s Isle of Wight Festival Rory Gallagher demonstrates why he is still regarded as one of the greatest guitar players that ever lived.

Stratocaster tones don’t come much purer than this. Performing the blues standard "Sugar Mama" using just his 1961 Fender Strat plugged into a Vox AC30 via a Dallas Rangemaster, Gallagher explores the whole gamut of classic blues rock Stratocaster tones from sparkling clean-up to biting saturation.

With a huge palette of sounds available at his fingertips courtesy of his Stratocaster’s volume knob (a much-underexplored approach these days!) Gallagher’s performance is the epitome of raw expression and a masterclass in playing dynamics.

Introduced to the burgeoning transistor-based electric guitar effects market of the mid ‘60s as a ‘treble booster’ by London’s Dallas Musical Ltd the Rangemaster was originally intended to brighten up darker-sounding British guitar amplifiers. Working in tandem with the amp, the Rangemaster drives its front end while shaping the EQ, adding treble, midrange and a unique grittiness.

In this clip, Gallagher’s famous ’61 Strat appears with substantially more of its sunburst finish intact (although even at this stage it would certainly fall into the ‘heavy relic’ camp!) 

For many a player, this guitar represents their favorite Stratocaster specs, including a ‘mint green’ nitrate pickguard (1959-1965) and ‘slab’ rosewood fretboard (1959-1962).

Taste were originally formed in 1966 in Cork, Ireland, by Gallagher along with bassist Eric Kitteringham and drummer Norman Damery. Following the disbandment of the trio’s second line-up as featured in this film (comprising bassist Richard McCracken and drummer John Wilson) Gallagher went on to pursue a successful solo career.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Rory Gallagher’s eponymous 1971 debut album release – an occasion highlighted by an exciting reissue of the original recording. Half a century on and the Irish bluesman’s legacy as a guitarist’s guitarist continues, with Joe Satriani, Joe Bonamassa, and Slash all citing him as a major influence.

Click here to pre-order your copy of Rory Gallagher’s debut album 50th Anniversary Edition.

Blues rock icon Rory Gallagher has beaten Irish music legends U2 and Thin Lizzy to the title of Ireland’s Greatest Music Artist in a vote hosted by Dublin radio station Newstalk. The accolade coincides with a multitude of 50th anniversary releases celebrating Gallagher’s 1971 eponymous debut album due out in a fortnight's time.

Rory Gallagher fans will also be treated to another 50-year celebration as the Museum of Reading commemorates the golden anniversary of the Reading Festival with their exhibition The 1971 Reading Festival: For the First Time.

Kicking off in 1971 with Gallagher on the bill, the festival has long been one of the UK’s biggest musical events, attracting bands and fans alike from all over the world. Named after Gallagher’s song “For the Last Time” from his 1971 debut album and curated by rock photographer Jill Furmanovsky, the exhibition tells the story of the first Reading Festival while showcasing items from Gallagher’s archive, including his 1966 Fender Telecaster electric guitar and Vox AC30 amplifier.

Mastered at London’s Abbey Road Studios and spread over five discs, the Rory Gallagher 50th Anniversary Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set is a fan’s treasure-trove. This ultimate collection includes a fresh mix of the original album; a six-song BBC Radio John Peel Sunday Concert; four BBC Radio Sounds of the Seventies session tracks, and 30 previously unreleased outtakes and alternate takes.

A previously unreleased 50-minute DVD of Rory's first-ever solo concert filmed in Paris for the Pop Deux TV show is also included.

This incredible 50th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set celebrating Rory Gallagher's eponymous 1971 debut album is available here.

Released in 1971 after the disbandment of Taste the previous year, Rory Gallagher’s eponymous debut album was recorded at London’s Advision Studios and further established him as a guitarist to be reckoned with. 50 years on and the Irish bluesman’s legacy continues as a guitarist’s guitarist, with the likes of Joe Satriani, Joe Bonamassa, and Slash citing him as a major influence.

In celebration of the album’s golden anniversary, a limited edition five-disc Deluxe box set has been planned for release on September 3. A Rory Gallagher fan’s dream, it includes a brand-new mix of the original album; 30 unreleased/alternative tracks; a 6-song BBC Radio John Peel Sunday concert from 1971; and 4 other BBC Radio session tracks. 

The Deluxe box set also contains a previously unreleased DVD of the French “Pop Deux” television show, along with a 32-page hardback book containing rare and previously unseen photographs.

Cut down versions of the Deluxe release are available as a double CD and limited edition 3LP.

Click here to pre-order your copy.

Playing blues guitar is as much about attitude as it is technique. If you’re suffering in either department, put some power back into your playing with this advice from electric guitar blues heroes of the past and present.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

“Your sound is in your hands as much as anything. It’s the way you pick and the way you hold the guitar, more than it is the amp or the guitar you use.”

Roy Buchanan

“Use circle picking to play faster. Start by playing with your pick at an angle. Hit the string with one edge of the pick and you’ll find that you’re in position to come back on the upstroke with the opposite edge. Then, alternate pick with a rotating motion in either a clockwise or counterclockwise circle. The pick, while not changing its angle in relation to the string, is circling that area of the string. It’s not done with the wrist, but with the fingers holding the pick.”

Bonnie Raitt

“Incorporate the feel of what someone plays into your style, rather than the actual notes. You just want to nail the emotion of how an artist’s singing and playing is making you feel, and how those feelings transform your own playing.”

Jack White

“If you want to keep things raw, try limiting yourself to only two guitars on a track.”

Rory Gallagher

“You must perform for an audience, because the real crunch happens when you get in front of people. You may discover that some things you played in rehearsal don’t make any sense because you fooled around too much with the frilly stuff and forgot the basic drive of the song. Playing live also teaches you to deal with situations like dropping your pick or breaking a string – as well as forcing you to project.”

Eric Johnson

“Remind yourself that you’re free to feel great instead of reserved or insecure. When you’re feeling good, you’re more apt to take chances onstage, and if you make a bunch of mistakes, it won’t matter. It’s almost like you’re the instrument, and the music is flowing through you like electricity.”

Ry Cooder

“Play a new thing every day. Learning one new passing chord, or a note combination, will get you moving towards something that will serve you later on. Someday, a song will come along that all of those things will relate to.”

Hubert Sumlin

“Take a note from me, put it with your own notes, and make it you.”

John Lee Hooker

“Forget about the fancy chords and just concentrate on a funky beat.”

Jeff Beck

“Overindulgence in anything is wrong – whether it’s practicing 50 hours a day or eating too much food. I’ve tried to keep it so that I’m able to execute the ideas that come out, but practicing too much depresses me. I get good speed, but then I start playing nonsense because I’m not thinking. A good layoff makes me think a lot. It helps me get both things together – the creativity and the speed.”

Blues-rock legend Rory Gallagher is the rare instance of a guitarist who was identified strongly with a single instrument. While he performed with other guitars, it was his 1961 Fender Stratocaster that Gallagher played extensively throughout his lifetime, from 1963 until his death on June 14, 1995.

In this video, shot by Guitarist magazine, Rory’s nephew Daniel Gallagher shows and talks about his uncle’s main guitars, including the Strat and several others.

The sunburst Strat was Rory’s workhorse guitar throughout his career. The finish was worn almost entirely away through constant playing, Rory’s sweat (which was peculiarly acidic) and, on the body’s backside, contact with Rory’s jeans.

As Daniel explains, this was reportedly the first Stratocaster in Ireland and was purchased by a guitarist for a showband – essentially a group that played dances – who had expected to receive a red-or a pink-finished Strat. 

The guitarist traded it in sometime afterward, and Rory – then just 15 – subsequently purchased it on installment for 100 pounds from Crowley’s Music Store in Cork. He played the guitar in his earliest bands, including Taste, the rock trio with which he first began to make a name for himself. “It meant a hell of a lot to him,” Daniel says. “And it was a huge part of his sound.”

Daniel also shows Rory’s white 1966 Telecaster that goes back to his days with Taste. Rory used the guitar for slide work, following the style of Muddy Waters, whom he performed with on the 1972 album The London Muddy Waters Sessions.

“A big thing for Rory, slide-wise, was playing on Muddy’s London Sessions,” Daniel says. “I think he learned a lot from Muddy Waters at that session, and [it was] sort of, ‘If that’s how Muddy does it, that’s how I’ll do it.’ ”

Other guitars shown here include his heavily modified Fender Esquire, 1963 “Bullfrog Blues” Gretsch Corvette, Martin D-35, and 1932 National Resonator.

Back in 1973, Jerry Lee Lewis released The Session... Recorded In London With Great Artists. It was a famously star-studded recording, with guest appearances from the likes of Albert Lee, Alvin Lee, Peter Frampton, Kenney Jones and Spooky Tooth's Mick Jones.

And now, an outtake from its sessions has emerged - a cover of the Rolling Stones "(I Can't Get No)" Satisfaction recorded alongside Rory Gallagher, who takes on vocal and lead guitar duties.

The cover is set to be released on a 7" single, which will accompany Gallagher's upcoming compilation album, The Best Of Rory Gallagher, due to drop October 9.

“A bit bamboozled at the lyrics and a bit embarrassed at not really knowing of the song, Jerry’s paranoia kicked in and thought he was being ‘wound-up,’” Donal Gallager, Rory's brother and manager, informed Rolling Stone. 

"Annoyance flashed on the Killer’s face, as his wild eyes scanned the studio, fixing on Rory. ‘I trust you boy. Without looking at anyone else but me, tell me truthfully, is there a song called Satisfaction? If so, you start teaching me.’”

The Best Of Rory Gallagher will feature highlights of the Irish blues legend's career, including cuts from his early days with Taste and his final 1990 solo recording, Fresh Evidence.

The Best Of Rory Gallagher - tracklist

CD1
1. Taste - What's Going On (from 1970’s On The Boards LP)
2. Rory Gallagher - Shadow Play (from 1978’s Photo Finish LP)
3. Rory Gallagher - Follow Me (from 1979’s Top Priority LP)
4. Rory Gallagher - Tattoo'd Lady (from 1973’s Tattoo LP)
5. Rory Gallagher - All Around Man (from 1975’s Against The Grain LP)
6. Rory Gallagher - I Fall Apart (from 1971’s Rory Gallagher LP)
7. Rory Gallagher - Daughter Of The Everglades (from 1973’s Blueprint LP)
8. Rory Gallagher - Calling Card (from 1976’s Calling Card LP)
9. Rory Gallagher - I'm Not Awake Yet (from 1971’s Deuce LP)
10. Rory Gallagher - Just The Smile (from 1971’s Rory Gallagher LP)
11. Rory Gallagher - Out Of My Mind (from 1971’s Deuce LP)
12. Rory Gallagher - Edged In Blue (from 1976’s Calling Card LP)
13. Rory Gallagher - Philby (from 1979’s Top Priority LP)
14. Taste - It's Happened Before, It'll Happen Again (from 1970’s On The Boards LP)
15. Rory Gallagher - Crest Of A Wave (from 1971’s Deuce LP)

CD2
1. Rory Gallagher - Bad Penny (from 1979’s Top Priority LP)
2. Rory Gallagher - Walk On Hot Coals (from 1973’s Blueprint LP)
3. Taste - Blister On The Moon (from 1969’s Taste LP)
4. Rory Gallagher - Loanshark Blues (from 1987’s Defender LP)
5. Rory Gallagher - Bought & Sold (from 1975’s Against The Grain LP)
6. Rory Gallagher - A Million Miles Away (from 1973’s from the Tattoo LP)
7. Rory Gallagher - Wheels Within Wheels (from 2010’s Notes From San Francisco LP)
8. Rory Gallagher - Seven Days (from 1987’s Defender LP)
9. Rory Gallagher - Ghost Blues (from 1990’s Fresh Evidence LP)
10. Rory Gallagher - Cruise On Out (from 1978’s Photo Finish LP)
11. Jerry Lee Lewis ft. Rory Gallagher - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (1973 outtake from the Jerry Lee Lewis The Session… Recorded in London With Great Guest Artists LP)
12. Rory Gallagher - They Don't Make Them Like You Anymore (from 1973’s Tattoo LP)
13. Rory Gallagher - Moonchild (from 1976’s Calling Card LP)
14. Rory Gallagher - Jinxed (from 1982’s Jinx LP)
15. Taste - Catfish (from 1969’s Taste LP) 

2LP Black Vinyl / 2LP D2C Clear Vinyl Exclusive (Includes the 7” black vinyl single ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ ft. Jerry Lee Lewis and Rory Gallagher)

Side A
Rory Gallagher - Bad Penny
Rory Gallagher - Shadow Play
Rory Gallagher - I Fall Apart
Rory Gallagher - Calling Card 

Side B
Taste - What's Going On
Rory Gallagher - All Around Man
Rory Gallagher - A Million Miles Away
Rory Gallagher - Just The Smile 

Side C
Rory Gallagher - Seven Days
Rory Gallagher - Jinxed
Rory Gallagher - Edged In Blue
Rory Gallagher - Philby 

Side D
Rory Gallagher - Walk On Hot Coals
Rory Gallagher - Tattoo'd Lady
Rory Gallagher - Crest Of A Wave 

15 Track single CD
1. Bad Penny
2. Shadow Play
3. I Fall Apart
4. Calling Card
5. What's Going On
6. All Around Man
7. A Million Miles Away
8. Just The Smile
9. Seven Days
10. Jinxed
11. Edged In Blue
12. Philby
13. Walk On Hot Coals
14. Tattoo'd Lady
15. Crest Of A Wave