The Gallagher Guitar Co. may have done something quite radical with their new line of Shelby guitars: a solid-wood, hand-made, built-in-America acoustic guitar selling for under $3,000.
To create these new models, the Gallagher team have reached back to a pair of designs that J.W. Gallagher used for body shapes before founding the company in 1965. They believe that these two body styles are unique to the company, and unlike any others being made today, yet it would take a close examination to recognize that fact.
The name comes from a pre-Gallagher Guitar Co. project that J.W. was involved with, in fact his first foray into building guitars. He accepted the challenge to design and build a low-budget guitar to be distributed by the Slingerland Drum Company. At this point, he had never even played a guitar, much less considered how to make one. But he did so by reverse engineering the instruments he researched and measured, and was successful in making Shelby Guitars for Slingerland.
The new Shelby line may have a more attractive price than the top line Gallaghers, but they are serious instruments with mahogany backs and sides, a sitka spruce top, and a satin finish. Two models are available, The Shelby Western, with a shape quite similar to a dreadnaught, with rope purfling on the top, and the Shelby Folk, which is similar to a concert body size, which uses black/white/black purfling.
The neck scale and fingerboard radius follow the same specs as all the Gallagher guitars.
The Shelby Folk carries a price of $2,700, while the Shelby Western sells for $2,850.
Here Jason Henderson plays a Shelby Western to offer a taste of the sound.
Additional photos and video samples can be found online, where you can learn more about the guitars that Doc Watson played for the bulk of his career.
