Fender Custom Shop Rory Gallagher Tribute Strat Artist

I was surprised to discover that there was quite a bit of the original color – and by that, I mean the red/brown and yellow of the burst. I wasn’t going to get away with just stripping off rory gallagher guitar backing
 paint, I was going to have to burst areas after I’d stripped them. Using Zip Strip, I began my attempt to remove the amazingly heavy and durable epoxy(?) finish from the body. It soaked for two days before the paint would even do anything more than slightly etch. This Fender finish is good stuff! Pity. Although the Strat was left abandoned in a rainy ditch for days after being stolen from the back of a tour van in Dublin, this is not believed to have caused any ill effect. All of the wear was caused by Rory's playing, not misuse. A borrowed Telecaster was also stolen at the same time but never recovered. When the Strat was recovered after two weeks, Gallagher swore he would never sell it or paint it after that.