“Rory was a peaceful man, but I thought he’d thump poor Chris on the spot”: The story of Rory Gallagher’s 1959 Fender Esquire, the guitar crushed on a runway with a refinish job worth fighting over

Rory’s 1959 Fender Esquire, the earliest photos of which date from live gigs in Milwaukee, 1971, saw many changes over the years. A crude engraving on the guitar’s neckplate, still visible today, gives a clue to the guitar’s origins, reading: “Property Of Buzz Harding, Greensburg Kansas”.

But once in Rory’s possession it would never leave his side. In fact, the only time its place in his collection was in serious jeopardy was when it was crushed on a runway and then inadvertently refinished in a colour Rory hated. Donal Gallagher takes up the story.

“Back in the early ’70s, we were touring America. We had arrived at some airport on a regional flight – it was a small jet, maybe a DC-9 – and we’d got off the plane. It was in the Midwest, I think it was the afternoon flight to Columbus, Ohio, or some town like that.

“Through the [arrival hall] window, you could see there was a conveyor belt with the instruments coming down in their cases out of the plane’s hold. They weren’t even flightcases, when I think about it. Crazy, it was. We always managed to get the Strat on board the plane with us though.

“So we were watching the Esquire and the bass being unloaded from the plane [from inside the arrivals terminal] and put on a luggage trailer, when I saw the Esquire case fall to the ground, and the guitar just fell out of it, and I thought, ‘Oh Jesus.’”

Joe Bonamassa plays Rory Gallagher's 1959 Esquire - YouTube

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“We were looking through the plate-glass window, and kind of shouting and banging. As we were waving at the guy driving the tractor, he did a full circle, to go back – and drove straight over the guitar! And I thought, ‘That’s it – dead.’”

“The gig that night was important for Rory and so I remember getting to the venue and thinking, ‘Oh Jesus,’ and plugging the Esquire in. They’re as tough as nails, Esquires, but the body was completely scraped and scored and it was actually outshining the Strat as being the most worn guitar on stage that night!”

The Esquire needed extensive repairs to the body and crushed bridge hardware when it returned to London, which were completed by Chris Eccleshall. During the repair, Chris fitted ’60s-style threaded steel saddles to the bridge and a new scratchplate, swapping out the seven-screw single-ply scratchplate present on the guitar at time of repair for a white five-screw single-ply one.

As Rory was due to go out on tour again, Chris decided the original nitro finish couldn’t be replicated in time and used a faster-drying poly finish during the repairs, which left the guitar with an unfortunate greenish hue in certain lights.

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Donal says Chris Eccleshall joked that this was perhaps appropriate for an Irish artist when he presented the guitar to Rory. Rory was, however, unamused.

“It just was the most awkward moment. You know? Rory was a peaceful man, but I thought he’d thump poor Chris on the spot,” Donal jokes, adding that the guitar was soon refinished by Chris a second time and today sports a solid black paint finish.

• The Rory Gallagher Collection will be auctioned at Bonhams in New Bond Street, London, on 17 October 2024.