Rory Gallagher’s Coricidin bottle (slide)

For slide on an electric guitar, Rory used Coricidin bottles – similar to those that Duane Allman popularized. Based on the photos Rory used the child-proof versions made after 1971, which differed somewhat to the ones which Allman used.

Duane Allman used to use this sort of thing, and I think Toddy Daniels too. It’s very handy because it doesn’t fall off your finger, and for one dollar 79 you get a great bottleneck. I’ve had various wine bottlenecks, but I find this is really the best, because it’s so smooth. I buy as many as I can when I’m over there because you can’t get them here.

‘I try to keep the balance between madness and technique’ – Rory Gallagher talks to John Dalton

He would sometimes refer to these as Aspirin bottles [Rory Gallagher interview (‘Cologne 76’-full interview )], although in most of the interviews he does call them by their right name.

The thing is, they don’t sell Coricidin in England so I have to pick up a few more bottles of it every time I’m in the States. I think they make the best bottleneck you can get, though I wish they would make them in a slightly smaller size, so I could use one on my small finger. I only hope that the company doesn’t move over to plastic. We’ll all be ruined then!

BRITISH ROCK GUITAR by Dan Hedges Guitar Player Books 1977