Fender Custom Shop Rory Gallagher Stratocaster, Relic, 3 Tone Sunburst Overview
Fender Custom Shop designers met Donal Gallagher, brother of late great guitarist Rory Gallagher, in Los Angeles in 1997 and received one of the most coveted guitars of all time - Gallagher's heavily worn 1961 Stratocaster® guitar. Fender initially built 40 replicas for European sale, but was subsequently besieged with requests for more.
The Rory Gallagher Tribute Stratocaster guitar is an exact replica of that revered instrument, down to the extremely worn Three-color Sunburst alder body, maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. It even has five Sperzel® tuners and one Gotoh® tuner, and the 12th-fret dot marker is white plastic rather than the original clay. It also features three custom-wound '60s single-coil pickups, aged chrome hardware, 21 jumbo frets and a bone nut. The Custom Shop's homage to a true master.
A Fender Custom Shop instrument is as good as it gets. You know it when you play one—it’s filled with intangible, electrifying elements that adds a new dimension to your playing experience. It’s as if the instrument itself is imbued with history, and is as close as it gets to an original build Fender from the Golden Era.
The Custom Shop builders are completely dedicated to their art, they’re the best at what they do, and they pour all of their passion, hard-earned knowledge and skill into every instrument they build. It’s no ordinary place, and the creations that come from it are no ordinary instruments. Whether they're Teambuilt or Masterbuilt.
- Body: Select Alder
- Body Finish: Nitrocellulose Lacquer
- Neck: Maple
- Neck Shape: Early '60s "C"
- Scale Length: 25.5" (648 mm)
- Fingerboard Radius: 9.5" (241 mm)
- Number of Frets: 21
- Fret Size: Medium Jumbo
- String Nut: Synthetic Bone
- Nut Width: 1.650" (42 mm)
- Neck Plate: 4-Bolt Serialized
- Neck Finish: Nitrocellulose Lacquer
- Fingerboard: Rosewood
- Position Inlays: Clay Dots with One Mis-matched White Plastic Dot at the 12th Fret
- Bridge Pickup: Custom '60s Single-Coil Strat
- Middle Pickup: Custom '60s Single-Coil Strat
- Neck Pickup: Custom '60s Single-Coil Strat
- Controls:
- -Master Volume
- -Tone 1. (Neck Pickup)
- -Tone 2. (Middle Pickup)
- Pickup Switching: 3-Position Blade:
- -Position 1. Bridge Pickup
- -Position 2. Middle Pickup
- -Position 3. Neck Pickup
- Bridge: 6-Saddle American Vintage Synchronized Tremolo
- Tuning Machines: 5 Sperzel® Die-Cast Machine Heads with 1 Mis-Matched Gotoh®
- Pickguard: 3-Ply Mint Green
- Control Knobs: Parchment Plastic
- Strings: Fender® USA 250R, NPS, (.010-.046 Gauges)
- Unique Features:
- -Aged White Plastic Parts
- -Original Dot Spacing
- -One Mis-matched Sperzel®; Tuning Machine
- -Clay Dots with One Mis-matched White Plastic Dot at the 12th Fret
- -Slot-Head Mounting Screws in Selector Switch
- -Heavily Worn and Distressed with Most of the Paint Missing
- -Replicates the Wear Patterns of Rory's Original Guitar