The Guitar Magazine – July 2019

“There’s some really cool stuff, but there’s still a
tonne of other stuff – there’s only so many tapes I can
convince them to let me digitise at once! So there’s a
lot more to keep searching through.”

TOP PRIORITY
New Kings Road Vintage Guitar Emporium is a very
distracting place for any guitarist to hang out. It’s
hard to move without quite literally tripping over one
of the gorgeous old guitars racked four or five deep
on the shop floor, while the walls are littered with
photos of megastars from Noel Gallagher to Jimmy
Page and beyond, who’ve bought or sold instruments
through its storied proprietor, Rick Zsigmond.
It’s safe to say that it takes a lot to impress a man
such as Rick, who has seen it all over the years, but
he’s definitely excited about what Daniel’s brought
with him today – a selection of gigbags, hard cases
and flightcases containing some of the treasures from
Rory’s huge collection.
“Forget the Strat, this is my favourite Rory guitar!”
he exclaims, as a white 1966 Telecaster comes out
of an unassuming case. From a man who’s been up
close and personal with Clapton’s Blackie, Gary
Moore’s Burst and Gilmour’s #0001 Strat that’s some

endorsement, so what better place to start our tour

through some of Rory’s remarkable guitar collection?

1966 FENDER TELECASTER

Rory’s most iconic guitar might be his battered ’61

Strat (see p40), but Daniel thinks his heart actually

belonged to Leo’s firstborn creation. “They were

probably his favourite guitar,” he insists. “Obviously,

his Strat was his favourite guitar, but as a model,

I think he really, really liked the Tele. He tinkered

with them a lot to make them do other things...

but he loved them.

“He really liked where the tone control was; he

did a lot of wah-wah effects with it. On his Strat,

he ended up just doing that with the bottom tone

control, and he actually glued the middle one so it

didn’t work! Ultimately, he just loved that Telecaster

sound – when you hear him talk about guitars in

interviews, I think they were his favourites.”

“HE REALLY LIKED WHERE THE

TONE CONTROL WAS; HE DID A LOT

OF WAH-WAH EFFECTS WITH IT.

ULTIMATELY, HE JUST LOVED THAT

TELECASTER SOUND”

OPPOSITE TOP The 1966

Tele was heavily modded by

Rory, and has routing for a

middle pickup

OPPOSITE LEFT Like most

Fenders of its vintage, the

Tele’s golden decal has

oxidised to a greenish colour –

and we stand accused

of loving the verdigris

ABOVEžŕŸƪɶžƼŸžƇ

ŋŕāĭƼûÝƇĭŕōƇŕƇĩĈȿɇɄɄ

Tele was to replace the

original threaded steel saddles

with grooved units

RORY GALLAGHER

GUITAR MAGAZINE 39