“I saw it on the wall in a store in Chicago and thought it looked interesting, as it was so distressed to look like his old guitar”: Fontaines D.C.’s Carlos O’Connell on why he opted for a guitar legend’s signature model as his “workhorse” instrument

Over the past five years, Fontaines D.C. have cemented themselves as one of Ireland’s biggest musical exports. It is perhaps fitting that guitarist Carlos O’Connell’s workhorse instrument, then, happens to be the signature guitar of fellow countryman Rory Gallagher.

While recording their upcoming album Romance, O’Connell opted for two ’60s Fender Mustangs and a Fender Rory Gallagher Strat, which he says “records brilliantly.”

“I was thinking of selling it for a while to get another Strat that I could make more ‘my own,’ but the sound is so great, and it’s such a workhorse that I decided to just keep it,” he says in the latest issue of Guitar World.

“I saw it on the wall in a store in Chicago and thought it looked interesting, as it was so distressed to look like his old guitar. I tried it and thought it was just a brilliant instrument.”

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The original Rory Gallagher Stratocaster has recently become the focus of a campaign to keep the guitar in Ireland as a cultural artifact. This movement gained traction after it was revealed that his 1961 Strat is expected to fetch between £700,000 and 1,000,000 at auction (up to approximately $1.3 million) this October.

In response, Sheena Crowley, the daughter of Michael Crowley, the man who originally sold Gallagher the guitar for £100 in 1963, launched a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of raising €1 million. At the time of writing, €29,760 has been raised towards this goal.

Shortly after this grassroots campaign, Tánaiste Micheál Martin pledged to find ways for the state to purchase the guitar.

The Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Dan Boyle also called on the government to intervene, telling The Irish Times: “Rory Gallagher’s guitar is a very distinctive and is probably one of the most recognizable guitars in rock history because of the fact that the varnish wore off because apparently Rory’s sweat was very acidic, and it just stripped off the varnish over time.

“But Rory was one of the first to put Irish rock on the international stage so it’s an important item culturally, and I think it’s important that it should be kept in the State.”

Fontaines D.C.’s fourth album, Romance, will be released on August 23 via XL Recordings. Official discussions about the Irish state’s involvement in buying back Rory Gallagher’s original Strat are still ongoing.

For more from Fontaines D.C., plus new interviews with Trey Anastasio and Simon McBride, pick up issue 582 of Guitar World at Magazines Direct.