My second photo shoot today was up in Sacramento at the home of Mike Nichols, son of the legendary Roy Nichols, who played lead guitar for Merle Haggard, the Maddox Brothers and Rose, and many others (that’s Roy playing lead guitar on Johnny Cash’s “Tennessee Flat Top Box”).
Since he was a Bakersfield guitarist, Roy Nichols had a couple of experiences with Semie Moseley and Mosrite Guitars. Before he played with Merle Haggard, Roy played a doubleneck Mosrite with Wynn Stewart (that guitar is for sale right now, at Retrofret in Brooklyn). For most of his career, Roy favored Fender Telecasters and Gibson Les Pauls.
When Semie Moseley was trying to get “The New Mosrite” company off the ground in the mid-1970s, he made a set of green sunburst Mosrite Brass Rail model guitars for Merle Haggard and his band to play.
As the story goes, Merle told Semie that the guitars were beautiful, but they were too fancy. At the time, Haggard was famous for his blue-collar, working-man appeal, and the Mosrite green sunburst guitars were over-the-top fancy, with gold hardware, and so they were never played by Merle or the band (and as far as I know, Roy was never photographed with this Mosrite guitar).
There is a receipt inside the case that indicates the guitar was a gift from Semie Moseley, dated 1989. Since the guitar was made around 1977–78, the only thing I can figure is that it must have been owned by the Merle Haggard business organization, then given to Roy to take home in 1989.
“The Hag” model Mosrite was never put into production, and until today it was just a rumor that this guitar existed. This guitar has never been photographed. It was quite amazing to see this piece of history in person tonight after hearing about it for years. Like a lot of the guitars that Semie custom built for famous players, you can tell he really put a lot of heart into this one. It plays like butter, super low action, with a perfect neck. The only disadvantage is that these 1970s Brass Rail–era guitars were quite heavy; I would say this one is probably eleven or twelve pounds.
Thanks for letting me see you tonight, Mike! Also special thanks to Jeremy Gullotto for introducing me to Mike years ago, and for putting me back in touch with him recently so I could photograph the guitar.
See more photos at Deke’s original Facebook post!
