This guitar is the most authentic and heaviest road-worn guitar in existence. I mean. its gotta be.

If guitars could tell stories from the road, this one would have many. But by looking at it today, it has battle scars that tells you plenty already. This was Irish rock and guitar virtuous Rory Gallaghers main guitar. He took it with him on every gig he played. He did have other solid-bodies, but always fell back on his first real Strat. Rory recorded several albums, but he was, all in all, a road and touring musician by heart and trade. At least, that is how he made his living (he said), and it was his profession all year round.

The guitar is said to be the first Stratocaster that made into the borders of Ireland, but its not confirmed. But the story goes: The guitarist for The Royal Showband named Jim Conlon (who died in 2008) ordered this guitar in 1961. And when he got it, it was a sunburst.

He originally wanted a red Strat because Hank Marvin had one.

Conlon did however, play this guitar until he received his proper red one. And after that, he put this guitar up for sale at a music store owned by one Michael Crowley in Cork, Ireland. A young Rory saw it there and managed to get the guitar on credit for a sum of £100 which he paid off in installments. The rest is rock history.

In 1966, this guitar was stolen. Rory went as far as going to a nation wide TV network and have them put out an APB on his beloved guitar. That actually paid off because the guitar was found not long after discarded in a rainy ditch. The thief probably got cold feet and ditched it. The guitar was bruised and beaten a little, but still OK. The guitar has had pickups replaced. One tuner is different than the other five, One Dot inlay is replaced with white plastic and the lacquer has almost completely worn off. Some say that Rory´s sweat was of the acidic kind, and the guitar was paint stripped by his sweat over time. The guitar even was put on drought treatment a couple of times to dry out all the sweat that was trapped in it. But Rory has said that every time at the end of the dry-outs, the guitar and the neck needed no adjustment and was always rock stable trough touring. He rarely had wood and warp related issues with it other than the sweat it would harvest up over time.

Rory sadly died very young at just age 47 and the guitar went into the care of his brother Donal Gallagher.

But besides its brutal life on the road, its a REAL rock 'n roll memorabilia to behold.

Fender made a limited Custom Shop replica of this guitar. Due to heavy demand, they decided to still make them and they are in production today.

There are numerous video on YouTube of Rory playing this guitar live. Here is one:

On July 8 2024, News broke that Donal was selling Rory's guitars and amps including this one. It was going under the hammer at Bonhams Auction house, and was estimated to fetch £700.000 - £1.000.0000 ($900.000 - $1.3 mil )

When the hammer fell on October 17 2024, the winning bid ended at £889,400.

Many fans expressed that Rory's guitar should not end up locked away in some rich collectors vault and they hoped it would remain in Ireland,. The news later broke that the winning bidder was to donate the guitar to the National Museum of Ireland. The fans got what they wished for and perhaps one day, everybody might get to see the guitar for display.

More information of this guitar:

Official Website

Fuzzfaced

Guitar photo courtesy of Guitar.com