Stephen Gallagher in the workshop with some new guitar bodies

Hippies Tom Bedell and Chad Corley visited J.W. Gallagher & Sons guitar workshop in Wartrace, TN recently. It was impossible to leave without some new guitars for our shop!

We got a taste of the rich Gallagher Guitars history, from the story of how Doc Watson got his Gallagher, to the super-secret almost unknown fact that Johnny Cash also owned a Gallagher — in black, of course — that went missing for several years before resurfacing.

As it turns out, J.W. Gallagher & Sons have been making guitars by hand since 1965 (great year), using much of the same equipment J.W. Gallagher custom built for his needs in the workshop. They’ve recently been featured on Tennessee Crossroads (view the segment here) and in Fretboard Journal magazine. And they’re still making the same top-quality instruments, doing it the right way three generations on. Gallagher Guitars are pretty selective about who they let carry their instruments, so we here at Two Old Hippies are honored to get the opportunity to share the awesome tone and playability of these guitars. You can find them in The Vault at our Nashville store or online at twooldhippiesguitars.com

Stephen Gallagher, Tom Bedell, and Don Gallagher

As you can see, doing things right is simply a small town tradition, like they say at Gallagher, “Expertly Crafted by Southern Hands.” Keep an eye on this space for more videos and pictures from the trip, as well as some new custom Gallaghers we have being built special for us!