In the year 2024 we associate vintage electric guitars with astronomical fees and instruments that are the sole preserve of blue-chip pros and the kinds of people who have the monetary firepower to buy a baseball team.
But there was a time when you could still get a bargain, like when Rory Gallagher’s brother, Donal, popped into a Los Angeles pawnshop in search of a quality guitar case and emerged with something considerably more special.
Speaking to Guitarist magazine, in advance of the Rory Gallagher Collection heading to auction at Bonhams on 17 October, Donal Gallagher shares the story of how he stumbled across his brother’s 1963 Gretsch Corvette by sheer accident.
It was an afternoon in Los Angeles. Rory was ensconced in Valley Sound and Donal was left outside manning the parking meter.
“I kept feeding quarters into the parking meter, hoping the attendant wouldn’t spot me doing it,” says Donal, “but I was getting so bored. But then I realised we were parked outside a pawnshop.”
An unscheduled trip to the pawnshop could yield any number of treasures; discounted weed whackers, Hi-Fi stereo systems, fishing rods, sling-shots, crossbows, firearms… you name it. But Donal had an idea.
“I thought, ‘Oh, I wonder if they have any spare guitar cases,’” he recalls. “We had this ongoing thing where Rory was picking up loads of guitars, but none of them had decent cases – or sometimes the original cases had been lost or they weren’t up to touring.”
He just closed it down again and said, ‘Let’s get out of here before they realise what they’ve sold you
Either way, it was better than standing outside by the side of the street. The owner was not forthcoming. He wanted to sell guitars, not cases. Donal saw one case that looked like it could handle the rough and tumble of a Rory Gallagher touring cycle. There was a problem.
If he wanted the case, he had to buy the guitar, a Gretsch Corvette, as well.
The pawnshop wanted $500. But if his brother’s gifts lay with the guitar, Donal’s lay in the art of persuasion. “I was seriously focusing on the very good case that it had,” he says. “So in the end, I got him down to $150.”
Perhaps it was just as well that Rory returned empty handed.
“I said, ‘Well, Rory, look, you’ll probably kill me for this, but I spotted they had a guitar… Actually, the case is probably much better than the guitar is,’” says Donal.
As soon as he told his brother that it was a Gretsch – a 1963 Corvette, serial number 60937 to be precise – it was time for a sharp exit in case seller’s remorse kicked in and that pawnshop owner decided to renegotiate the deal.
“I opened the trunk of the car, [Rory] looked at it and he just closed it down again and said, ‘Let’s get out of here before they realise what they’ve sold you,’ says Donal.
With a single P-90 pickup, this stripped-down rock 'n' blues machine would go into Rory Gallagher’s regular rotation, and now that it is up for auction, it could go into yours, too.
Be warned: expect to pay more than $150. See Bonhams Auctions for more details of the Rory Gallagher Collection.
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