Rory Gallagher strat questions...

I'm putting together a Rory Gallagher inspired telecaster (yep, I said telecaster) and want to incorporate some key elements from Rory's strat. It will have a strat neck and strat neck pickup, aged white pickguard and an alder tele body with the "Rory-esque" aging treatment.

I had a couple questions about the tuners.

Based on the holes on the back of the headstock, it looks like the tuners were originally klusons, then replaced with gotoh modern tuners (based on the holes below the sperzels), then later replaced with Sperzel non-locking (Solid-Pro) tuners.

Is that correct? Looks like the low E tuner is still a gotoh-- does anyone know what the story is behind that?

The Sperzel tuner broke down,Rory was pressed for time and he couldn´t get hold of a Sperzel tuner so he installed a Gotoh tuner instead.
Nice to meet someone else who admires Rorys playing.
I followed his career since ´71.After listening to "Live Taste" I was sold.
He had elements in his playing that no other guitarists had.

The holes below the sperzel tuners would indicate that he had a full set of gotohs on there at some point. I wonder if he had gotohs on first, then switched to sperzels until one crapped out on him, at which point he switched it on short notice to another gotoh?

http://elderly.com/images/vintage/30U/30U-16393_headstock-back.jpg

The original tuners were Klusons.

I'm putting together a Rory Gallagher inspired telecaster (yep, I said telecaster) and want to incorporate some key elements from Rory's strat. It will have a strat neck and strat neck pickup, aged white pickguard and an alder tele body with the "Rory-esque" aging treatment.

He was a Tele-man as well...

http://www.4001.com/rory/boots/smrorythaicover.jpg

... but when most guitar players say "Rory Gallagher," they see a mental picture of his beat-to-hell Strat. Good to see him still influencing folks, and getting a wider audience. Even if it is posthumously.

Lucky enough to see him play twice. May he rest in peace.

From interviews in the '70's, Rory changed the Klusons to Schallers, then I guess he even wore those out. Hence the Sperzels.

A local store had a RG strat for a while, but I never played it--I still remember the '65 I used to have.

Don't forget the single pearl dot replacement.

The original tuners were Klusons.

yep, I know that-- It looks like he switched from klusons to gotohs (probably schallers at the time), then from those to sperzel non-lockers. Then at some point switched the low E to a gotoh.

what was he doing to that thing where he had to keep changing tuners? I didn't think klusons and non-locking sperzels would wear out that fast, even if he did have the guitar for a long time.

He was a Tele-man as well...

http://www.4001.com/rory/boots/smrorythaicover.jpg

... but when most guitar players say "Rory Gallagher," they see a mental picture of his beat-to-hell Strat. Good to see him still influencing folks, and getting a wider audience. Even if it is posthumously.

Lucky enough to see him play twice. May he rest in peace.

You know, I knew of Rory in my teens in the 70's, but never owned any of his music. I really don't know why - just never did. Recently, I started listening to alot of his work. Man, what a HUGE talent!!!

Whilst he did have the strat almost from new, it was famously beaten up even by the time I first saw him. Thing is though, it never seemed to get any worse.

That could have been at Reading '73 or earlier on town-hall circuit, erm... saw him over a dozen times mainly because there was a period when he was always on the bill, even when he wasn't supposed to be: he would sub for other bands that didn't turn up.

in an interview, rory said he left the one odd tuner (i don't remember the brands of tuners) on "just as a gypsy thing", in other words just to be funky and odd. look at the specs for the rory gallagher custom shop strat that fender makes and you'll probably learn alot.

On Rory's talent: Jimi Hendrix was asked on a TV show (Youtube?),
'How does it feel to be the best guitarist in the world?'
'Dunno. You'd better ask Rory Gallagher'. :smile: