Gallagher Guitars: A Family Legacy

18 Comments By 
| Originally Published: August 11, 2011

Stephen Gallagher of Gallagher Guitars, Wartrace, TN

Behind a weathered brick storefront in tiny Wartrace, Tennessee, generations of Gallaghers assemble far-flung ingredients from alien landscapes to craft an entirely familiar object.

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For more than 50 years, Gallagher Guitar Co. has connected Tennessee to the wider world. The small family operation fashions exquisite handmade guitars from exotic woods like Sitka spruce and rosewood (from the Pacific Northwest and Brazil), inlaid with shining bits of coral, seashell and abalone pearl from distant seas. And the finished product reaches as deeply back into the world, shipping to customers from locales as widespread as Japan, Sweden, Italy, the former Yugoslavia and Saudi Arabia.

Three Generations of Gallaghers

It’s funny how things evolve, muses Don Gallagher, as the second-generation guitar-maker shows off a custom piece he’s been working on for months. He’s talking about the evolution of one of his special inlay designs­ – a popular Celtic knot pattern idea that germinated when an Irish customer placed an order. But Don Gallagher could just as easily be referring to his life’s work, one taken up by his father before him, and recently, by his son Stephen.

Don’s father, a fine-furniture maker named J.W. Gallagher, started building guitars in 1965 – a prescient career shift, just as the guitar began to transcend its second-fiddle position as bluegrass backup instrument and to sing its own solo notes in an emerging folk-music landscape. Don grew up making toys in his dad’s woodworking shop, then worked there during his summers off from college. After  graduate school and a stint as an industrial psychologist, he found his way back home and took up his father’s craft.

There’s something appealing about making something that’s going to be here for a long time, he says, his blue irises pensive.

Gallagher Guitars

Leaving a Legacy

Every few minutes, a solemn whistle wails, as a slow train rumbles through downtown Wartrace – a brief run of lovely old storefronts and a few blocks of shady residential streets. That trainsong speaks of history, and continuity – values upheld in large measure by the Gallagher family, who settled in the area in the early 19th century. Don Gallagher talks about the importance of leaving a legacy, as he pages through one dusty ledger after another.

Each ledger represents one of the 3,500 or so guitars the company has produced, recording its serial number, describing its materials, and tracing its ownership as it passes from one doting musician to the next. Those yellowed pages list legendary Gallagher Guitarists the likes of Doc Watson, Charlie Daniels, and Hank Williams, Jr.

Ironically, Don Gallagher’s son, Stephen, is the first Gallagher company man to experience the family’s creations as craftsman and musician. A roots, blues and Celtic picker, he sees the guitars he builds with his father as more than just a product. It’s a tool for artists, he says, bright blue eyes blinking in the sunlight behind the shop. He says building guitars opens the bluegrass world to him in a way he might not experience if he weren’t a Gallagher. Like a kid of Doc Watson coming over to the house and playing, he recalls. Just a legend, an icon!

Stephen Gallagher brings a music-lover’s ear and a musician’s connections into the mix. He travels the festival circuit on the company’s behalf and befriends touring musicians who’ll become Gallagher Guitar customers. And despite all that old-world heritage, Gallagher, father and son, understand the need to innovate. As a small company, they’re speedboat-maneuverable, layering new-world techniques over the traditions they’ve cultivated – innovations like using software to draw and cut out intricate inlay designs more efficiently, and employing an updated finish technique that uses UV light to cure lacquer.

gallagher guitars

Photo credit: Antony Boshier

Artist and Craftsman

Don Gallagher proudly brandishes a fretboard he’s labored over for uncounted hours: it’s a custom piece commissioned by the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, as a prize for their annual flat-picking festival. The neck tells a story in miniature: tiny figures of polished stone and mother-of-pearl fiddle and pick mini-instruments; golden plumes evoke fields of Great Plains grain.

Although Gallagher Guitar launched its enterprise with two basic guitar models, the company has adapted to a changing market, moving towards more customized instruments like this one. Stephen asserts that many musicians are turning away from all things mass-produced. Used to be people would just want a Doc Watson model because Doc Watson played it, he says. Now what people want is something that was individually made for them. They want something with feeling, emotion, personality.

If Don Gallagher’s spreading grin is any clue, there’s no shortage of feeling in this custom work-in-progress he’s holding. He beams as he points out the tiny bits of color pressed into the neck and explains where each shiny puzzle piece came from. He says he loves blending the craft of building a beautiful, working instrument with the artistry of personalizing each one with its own story, from a Trail of Tears memorial guitar he once made to a rendering of one owner-to-be’s dog.

Two things all Gallagher guitars have in common, whether stock or custom, are bell-clear sound and the trademark French curve and old English G on the headstock – the mark of an unbroken line of Gallaghers whose hands have for more than six decades molded fine woods into instruments of musicmaking.

Stephen feels that powerful pull of history: Just knowing that hundreds of years from now, he laughs, stuff that I worked on, somebody might pick up and try to figure out, Who built this?

Update: Gallagher Guitars is now located at 18 N. Walnut Street in Murfreesboro. You can find them online at gallagherguitar.com or reach them at (615) 624-4196. As always, please call ahead before driving long distances.

18 Comments

  1. Don Gallagher says:

    Just thought I would share this article with you.

  2. DJ says:

    Well you could have told us about this when you were here. Just a great article on Don and Steven. Wish all the “owners” here in town could read it. Little Wartrace is rockin!!

  3. Ricky wood says:

    Great article. Can you sent me information about purchase ? Thanks rwood

  4. J.Harris says:

    Need price list for your work..thank you

  5. Joseph Xanders says:

    We would like to visit your company but nowhere can I find an address.
    Wartrace, TN is not on our map.

  6. Carl Jonsson says:

    Hi,

    Great that Sweden also was mentioned as I am the Dealer for Gallagher Guitars in Sweden. If you’ve never played one, DO IT:-)

    Very nice Magazine:-)

    Sincerely

    Carl

  7. MARK HILL says:

    Again more and more of the finest quality products are being found and rekinized throughout the montains of TN.This pride for precision workmanship is taught and passed down throuh generations of people who settled the beautiful land working to do what they had to do but always taking pride in whatever task was required of them.

  8. debra lynch says:

    saw the article in farm bureau magizine. my dad wanted to know how to contact you. he wants to buy a guitar for my son. his grandson. could you please send information on how to get to the company, and what we need to do to make this happen. he wanted to get this for my son to have somthimg to remember him by. thank you , Debra Lynch

  9. […] Gallagher Guitar Co: A Family Legacy in Wartrace, TN | Tennessee … « Mackormick mayo […]

  10. Bob Hardison, Columbia, Tn. says:

    I have 22 guitars and I need another one after reading today about your Gallagher guitars. I will be there to see and hear one fairly soon. We go to Bell Buckle a few times a year to eat and see the town. Next time we will got to Wartrace first as it’s only maybe 10 min difference. Just a couple of my acoustic collection is: a Gibson J45 and a 1960 Conrad and when delivered in a few days-a Martin J45. I’m anxious to see and hear a Gallagher.

  11. Magnus Raask says:

    Hi
    I just bought one of your wonderful guitars! I was at the dealer Calle Johnsson in sweden and bought a Doc Watson. A fantastic guitar sounds wonderful and very finely crafted what I can see. Now it is difficult to lay it down at night so my sleep is suffering ….

    Calle said that the guitar had a crack in the top that you have fixed in the factory. I thought you might logs or remember the guitar. Maybe you can describe what you did. The serie no is 3581.

    In any case, it sounds wonderful so the sound is hardly affected.

    Thanks for a great guitar!

    Best regards, Magnus Raask

  12. John Logan says:

    The finest acoustic made. It’s unique quality is it’s sweet clear musical sound. That is this instrument’s ”secret sauce”. Glad to hear Stephen is carrying on his Grand Dad’s and Father’s Legacy making these handmade Stradivarius of Tennesee flat top guitars… Gallagher

  13. Mike Spector says:

    I own a G-70 (ser.#950) and really love it. I want to copy it and build one so I can keep one out in my shop or take places I wouldn’t want to take the G-70. Do you sell any patterns or plans ?

  14. Carter Bugg says:

    I had the unique pleasure of visiting your downtown shop, while travelling with a helicopter spray crew. Your son was gracious enough to spend time with us, talking about family, and the personal care that goes into making a Gallagher guitar. There was a guitar, trimmed in gold, that he played a few chords on. Price was only $ 10,000 ! The most beautiful musical instrument, I have ever seen. The sound was like that of angels. Thank ya’ll for the wonderful experience. (back in 2008)I

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