“Even for a beginner to pick it up and play it, it almost plays you. I can tell you, it brings power to your hands”: The story of Rory Gallagher’s 1932 National Triolian – the resonator that had all the mojo but not the volume for his raucous live show

Rory Gallagher’s 1932 National Triolian Resonator.

Fans of Rory’s famous Irish Tour ’74 album – one of the great live rock and blues recordings of our time – will know the National as the guitar used on the track As The Crow Flies, with its metallic yet soulful voice evoking so many of the old blues and roots recordings that inspired Rory growing up.

“I remember Rory picked it up in Denver, and he was particularly after a resonator like the one Scrapper Blackwell played,” Donal Gallagher recalls. Rory himself added more detail about the purchase in a 1977 interview with International Musician, stating that: “I got it from a guy in the States. You get these travelling guitar salesmen going round. I got it for a very reasonable price – about £100.