Don,
Roy played a Les Paul much of the time ...

An old Tele throrough an old Fender Bassman would help also.

While I do not doubt the authenticity of Roy Nichols playing a Les Paul....all guitarists of this level have/had many guitars to choose from....The fact remains that he as well as three others,namely Roy Buchannan,James Burton, and Don Rich will be forever linked to their main axe, the Fender Telecaster.

I have seen Roy on 3 different ocassions with Merle, one time I even got on the players bus and shook hands with all of "The Strangers" .... all 3 times I saw them, he played a red sunburst Les Paul.

Merle plays the Tele and a lot of those "tele-licks" that are attributed to Roy are actually Merle ... he's has always been a great lead player.

The guy that plays lead for Merle now, Red Volkert, plays Tele most the time. I have met him as well ... in fact he used to play the same club circut as I did in San Jose ... That guy can play ... but he's very LOUD!

Hey Kurt, thats cooool! Did Roy's red 'Paul have a single coil bridge pickup (or maybe split coil switch) to go with its ebony and mahogany?

One thing I know is, I can get a great country sound out of my ebony/mahogany 24 3/4" scale axe, because I have a Joe Barden two/tone bridge pup that sounds very single coil-ish when split....and the other thing is, I play it as if I were playin my Tele.

Big_D, I think you should think: fingers>single coil pup> Fender 6L6 amp or similar> treble 7, mid 4, bass 6, bright switch on. Accent in between the one two three four beat to go with the country bass line, ya know? boom-boom, boom-boom ect. Keep that in your head, and no matter what it will come out Country. Ghost notes and fast pick'in too if you want.

Edit: also try up strumming as much as possible between downbeats . Keep it in mind with the lead picking too...

Tommy,
No it was a Les Paul Standard I think .... it may have been a Deluxe with the smaller pickups, but I don't think so ... I would have remembered that, as I used to have a Deluxe.

Another thing I recall ... in later years a lot of the band used Peavey amps on the road ... I'm not sure what they recorded with.

I want to thank Treena's Uncle, Jack Trent, for turning me on to Merle and introducing us to him. Jack played piano for Merle, Buck, Ferlin Huskey, Tommy Collins, just to name a few.

Jack is getting on in years now and has been sick a couple of times in the past few months. I just want to say here that we love him very much and are thankful for all he has taught us.

I met Jack in Bakersfield many years back.It was at Merles house. I used to play with another Bakersfield phenom, Michael John Claughton which is how I was able to meet these folks. Yes I have seen Roy play a Les Paul,and it was,in fact a Cherry Sunburst Standard..but as I said before and most of the history's that abound always talk of his use of the Telecaster.Whether it was Merle or Roy playing those licks is not in my field of knowledge. I did several shows with Roy Clark(who does NOT play a Tele) and Buck Trent was on all those bills.He had a bunch of the 'Bakersfield Sound' guys with him each time. So I am familiar with that form of country to some extent.

Hey guys, thanks for all the history. I'm a late bloomer when it comes to country (been playing rock and blues most of my life). It was Steve Gains (an Okie) who turned me on to all the country pickers just from hearing his licks. I had to find out who his influences were and that led me to most of the guys you named. I would have loved to have met both Roy N. and Roy B. Very Cool.

Tommy, Thanks for the advice, that did the trick. Not enough treble and too much mid was my problem. I EQed the super reverb like you said kicked in the bright switch and it sounds great on tape. My maple neck strat sounds more convincing for this also as my other strat is rosewood and tuned down a half step (for SRV stuff) so it was a little too dark.

I can dial up a great blues or rock tone in no time but country had always eluded me. Not anymore. Thanks so much Tommy, you da man.

Dave,
Is that the same "Michael John" of "Michael John and Kimbelee"?

They are old friends of mine as well .... and were partially responsible for helping our band get out of Oregon and land a house band spot at the famous "Saddle Rack" (The largest nightclub West of the Missippi) venue in San Jose CA .... and the Buck Trent that you mentioned ... also Treena's uncle ... and Jack's brother. Jacks son and Treena's cousin, Johnny Trent, still visits my house ocasionally and sit in on the drums for us.

I am hoping to get a chance to record Jack on the piano soon before it's too late.

http://www.bakersfi…

Sometimes, right in the middle of a song, Merle Haggard would turn around on stage and call out Roy Nichols’ name. It was as much a warning to the audience as an introduction: A lead-guitar solo was coming, folks, so pay attention.

And sometimes, right after Nichols’ subsequent excursion down the well-traveled neck of his Fender Telecaster, Haggard would burst out laughing in utter amazement. Nichols’ solos, as often as not, were unrehearsed, ad-libbed escapades that no one - not even Nichols himself - could have expected to hear.

Nichols, a member for 22 years of Haggard’s renowned band, the Strangers, was notorious for such live musical meanderings. There has always been a little jazz - no, a lot of jazz - in Nichols’ style: It was his talent for right-brain-to-left-hand, stream-of-consciousness creativity that gave Haggard’s music a distinctive edge. French-Gypsy jazz guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt was perhaps Nichols’ greatest influence, and that influence showed up in the most unlikely places.

But as vast as his technical and creative skills might have been, Nichols’ most noteworthy role in the movement known as the Bakersfield Sound might have been that of musical Kilroy.

Name most any prominent band in West Coast country music from the 1940s, ‘50s, ‘60s or ‘70s, and the ubiquitous Nichols was there: the Maddox Brothers & Rose, Lefty Frizzell, Cousin Herb Henson, Wynn Stewart, and starting in 1965 or so, Haggard and the Strangers.

“I guess you could say I did it all,” said Nichols, now 65 and retired in Bakersfield.

Nichols, born in 1932 in Chandler, Ariz., and raised in Fresno, was two weeks shy of his 16th birthday when he met Fred Maddox, bass player and resident smart-aleck of the Maddox Brothers. Maddox, whose band was already a hillbilly icon in the country-music world of 1949, had heard Nichols playing guitar on the Saturday-morning radio program of Fresno DJ Barney Lee.

Someone introduced Nichols and Maddox, and Maddox ushered the teen-ager out to the parking lot, where he explained the rules of employment. Just like that, Nichols was hired. During his 18-month association with the band, Nichols earned $90 a week, a staggering fortune for a 16-year-old.

“He could play anything,” said Rose Maddox. “He was good at all of it. Every guitar picker in the country wanted to play like him, but none of them ever compared. He was one of a kind. But the music aside, he was like any 16-year-old kid - feisty, causing us trouble. But my mother brought him under.”

One night in Mesa, Ariz., at a Maddox & Rose concert at the local high school gymnasium, a teen-age couple worked their way up to the very front of the crowd. Resting their elbows, hands and chins on the front of the stage, Buck Owens and Bonnie Campbell Owens studied every wiggle, every riff.

“I never took my eyes off Rose Maddox,” said Bonnie. “Buck never took his eyes off Roy Nichols.”
Because the band’s schedule often took them out of the state for weeks at a time, Fred had had to go to the local school superintendent and initiate a series of meticulous legal steps: He became not only Roy’s legal guardian but his officially sanctioned tutor as well. As it turned out, Henry Maddox, Fred’s brother, was the one who tutored Nichols.

Fred had quite the opposite sort of influence. He taught Roy the fine art of sneaking out of and back into hotel rooms without being caught by colorfully domineering Lula Maddox, the family matriarch and band manager.

Nichols got pretty good at it. During intermissions he would canvass the dance hall, line up dates with attractive young females and hustle back up to the stage. He did pretty well for himself, by most accounts.

But Las Vegas was the beginning of the end.

“I’d sneak out at night playing the slots,” Nichols said. “Lula caught me one night and told me never to do it again. But I did it anyway, the next night. So she fired me.”

During his brief stay with the band, Nichols recorded more than 100 songs, even while performing seven nights a week almost year-round.

Nichols already had another job waiting for him back in the valley with Smiley Maxidon, whose daily one-hour radio show was broadcast live on Hanford’s KNGS. Nichols also played at dances three nights a week, staying up all night on those occasions until it was time for the 7 a.m. radio program.

A year later, Nichols went to work for Lefty Frizzell, a Texan whose “If You’ve Got the Money, Honey, I’ve Got the Time” made him a legend in the eyes of many in Bakersfield. Haggard was one such devoted fan, but he came to admire Nichols as well after watching him play with Frizzell at the Rainbow Gardens in 1953. Haggard, 14, got up his courage and approached Nichols, 18. “What’s it like playing with Lefty Frizzell?” he asked him. Not worth a darn, Nichols answered. Nonetheless, Nichols obliged when Haggard asked to meet the star; Merle even convinced Frizzell to put him on stage as an impromptu opening act.

In 1954, after making several recordings with Frizzell, Nichols returned to work for another year with Maxidon.

He then joined Cousin Herb Henson’s “Trading Post” on Bakersfield’s KERO-TV, a five-days-a-week, 45-minute show that ran for nearly 11 years. Nichols stayed with the show, off and on, until Henson suffered a fatal heart attack in November 1963. During that time he also played at the Foothill Club in Long Beach with Billy Mize and Cliff Crofford, toured and recorded with Johnny Cash and, in 1960, joined Wynn Stewart’s band in Las Vegas. He came to be good friends with that band’s bass player, Merle Haggard.

It was the beginning of a professional and personal relationship that would span another four decades.

In early 1965, Nichols, his wife and 1-year-old daughter moved back to Bakersfield (a son came along later) and Nichols worked for a time at Tex’s Barrel House. He soon met up again with Haggard, whose monetary disasters in the card rooms of Vegas had hastened his departure from Nevada. In August 1966, when Haggard officially formed the first incarnation of the Strangers, Nichols was his first hire.
By this time, Bakersfield’s core of first-rate performers was starting to regard its collective contribution to country music as the equal of Nashville. “Yeah, finally we started to feel that way,” Nichols said. “We had so many talented musicians. We were doing OK with Merle, and Buck and Don Rich were getting hot then, too. I got to listening a lot to Don. He had a technique.”

Nichols, whose aggressive but eloquent style foreshadowed the emergence of rockabilly by a half-decade, developed techniques later embraced and absorbed by three generations of rock and country guitarists. Along with James Burton, who has played lead guitar for Haggard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and others, he popularized the “chicken pickin’” guitar technique. Nichols also worked out a distinctive descending-note move that Lula Maddox once likened to the sound of “a horsey fartin’.” But Nichols became best known for a string-bending technique that was all his: While many guitar players hit a note and then proceed to stretch the string into a sharp, Nichols preferred to bend it first, strike the string, and then relax it, lowering the note.

Between 1966 and 1987, Haggard and his band, driven instrumentally by the formidable combination of Nichols and Farmersville-bred steel guitarist Norm Hamlet, recorded 38 songs that reached No. 1 on the Billboard country charts and another 33 that reached the top 10. Nichols wrote 19 published songs of his own, including one, “Street Singer,” that was nominated for a Grammy award in 1970.

In March 1987 he quit the road and retired from the band. The following year he was inducted into the Western Swing Society Hall of Fame in Sacramento.
Nichols, a shy, soft-spoken man who talks little and sings even less, isn’t comfortable with praise. Haggard, he says, deserves credit for pushing him to higher creative levels and giving him the elbow room to soar on his own.

Friends and colleagues aren’t inclined to let Nichols get away with that.

“I have not seen his equal in country music among people playing lead guitar,” said Tommy Collins, a former Bakersfield honky-tonk star who went on to write 300 songs, including Haggard’s “Sam Hill” and “Go Home.” “He would play so tasty, so skillfully, and with class.”

In February 1996, Nichols suffered a stroke that put him in a wheelchair and cost him the use of his left hand. He attends therapy sessions twice a week.

These days, 10 years into retirement, he is generally known only to fans of Haggard’s music, and to guitar players interested in the culture and tradition of their instrument. Sometimes, however, the general public gets a glimpse of the man who helped make Haggard the star he eventually became.

One such occasion was a May 1997 performance by Big House at Owens’ Crystal Palace. Monty Byrom, rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the Bakersfield-bred band, looked out into the packed house, toward Nichols’ place in the crowd. “We hope Roy Nichols is likin’ this,” Byrom said, “‘cause he was the man.”

http://www.buddyemm…

Try the links I suggested, they have everything you are looking for!

I was born in Bakersfield, grew up there, Family knows Merle and Buck. My uncle played piano for them both.

I can invite Roy to chat here with us. I have his email and I'm sure he can set the record straight on what guitar he used the most!

I'll see what I can arrange, at least a post from him or an email will settle this debate.

:wink: Treena

Oh, I love this stuff. 8)

Great post Treena.

Gypsy jazz, Reinhardt, improvisation, right brain-left hand

...its all good.

I can invite Roy to chat here with us. I have his email and I'm sure he can set the record straight on what guitar he used the most!

I'll see what I can arrange, at least a post from him or an email will settle this debate.

Treena

That would be wonderful Treena. My guess is that Roy played both a Tele and a 'Paul, and played the 'Paul as if it were a Tele.

Big_D wrote: Hey guys, thanks for all the history. I'm a late bloomer when it comes to country (been playing rock and blues most of my life).

Me too Big_D, I'm relatively new to Country myself. I'm an admitted pop-culture lover, three minute songs, rock based, blah blah, there, I've said it. :oops:

Past three years I've been swimmin around in freestyle improv, lovin bluegrass, country, jazz, transposing piano, harpsichord...just about anything. And I avoid the overly cliche blues trap ...if someone starts in, I go far away. Chordal tones and tasty fills whenever possible.

Small world aint it. Yes, that would be Michael John and Kimberlee. I was a "Fancy Color' for about a year in late 79 early 80...around the time that Michael Kelsay had his store in Springfield(home of the Simpsons)...I got the gig through meeting M.J. at the store. We worked in Nevada a lot.Visited Merles house once(while I was there).Kimberlee joined the band right after I did ...She came from Hawaii..and we had a drummer out of Burns Oregon, Ted Tiller...It was a country show band, but on slow nights, Michael John would get out all the Merle and off we'd go.I loved it. But then I'm an Okie.

BTW...It would be wonderful for Roy to visit but rather hard as I believe he died in 2001.But if you can get him then please do!

BTW...It would be wonderful for Roy to visit but rather hard as I believe he died in 2001.But if you can get him then please do!

:) Well, the way he's been hangin around this thread...I hear bells, don't you?

:D :!: CAN I GET A WITNESS?? :!: :!:

Those arent bells T, thems those pull-downs and hammerons he made so famous!!!On that blasted Tele!!! lolol

Since we're heading this way anyhoo, theres been three extremely influential schools of Country picking that werent Nashville oriented.

1. The Bakersfield Sound.....primarily started by folks who moved there during the dustbowl...making them Okies!

2.The Austin Sound.....Southernbound Okies fer sure. :roll:

3. The Tulsa Shuffle.....This would include Western Swing stuff and includes the GREATEST GUITAR PLAYER EVER......Eldon Shamblin......Oh! My! Gawd! Its Okies again!

No wonder theres so many on top the country charts .

OK I found exactly what you asked about Big D. This is from an interview with Roy Nichols .... the question was,

" How did you get such a thick yet still clear tone?"

Roy Nichols wrote: I had a Twin Reverb with Lansing speakers that Fender had given me, and I just plugged straight into it. I ran all the tone controls on 10, and set the volume where I needed it. I used my Tele’s bridge pickup for lead, and I’d back off the tone control to bring up the bass.

.

One thing that can be said for the Country Music charts is it is the last stronghold for real musicians.

This is not to say that midi, sampeling, pitch correction and time correction hasn't taken its toll in Music City, but still for the most part, there are more real musicians, playing more real music in the Country market, than anywhere else currently, excepting Blues.

I think that's why we are seeing all the old rockers migrating to the Country side, just like those Okies in the 30's .... it's Americas Music.

there are more real musicians, playing more real music in the Country market, than anywhere else currently, excepting Blues.

I hear you, funny thing both are the roots of Rock. If it wasn't for Jimmy Rodgers and Robert Johnson rock may have never evolved. With the early rock and roll guys it was easy to tell which side of the fence they came from, Buddy Holly/Country, Chuck Berry/Blues and Elvis a good mixture of both I guess growing up white and poor in the south he was exposed to both. Even into the late 70's you could still figure out a bands roots by their music, Eagles/Country, Zepplin/Blues and Skynyrd/Both (there's that white and poor in the south theory again).

I think one of the main reasons that technology hasn't affected Country and Blues artists as much is that they tend to stay true to their art. Tain't broke don't fix it. Thank God these guys (and gals) haven't caved. Besides Jazz and Classical they are the last bastions of real music and I love every note of it.

Hey Dave since your an Okie I was wondering if you ever saw Gaines in one of his pre Skynyrd bands (Crawdad or The Ravens)? I'm a huge fan of his (as if you couldn't tell) , he was such an amazing player, one of my fav's along with SRV and Billie Gibbons.

Little Stevie Gaines from Miami Oklahoma! Yep saw the Ravens a couple of times. Everybody in my band hated them! Except me..I kept thinkin, "That giter player is shore nuff a good'n"....Holy Christmas they were loud! I think Cassie was at a couple of those shows too....but thats sooooo longggg agoooooo(echoechoecho........)

If you want a bit more insight into Stevies style then get you some Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys stuff.Listen to THAT guitar player.Even in advanced years he could play great!...The Tractors ...he was on both records before he passed.

I remember all the Rockers going down to Cains Ballroom on Sunday afternoons to hear the Western Swing played by all the old greats. And those cats were just so out there as far as tone,style ,taste,structure,ALL of it.Eldon sat in his chair with that old Strat and that old Fender Bassman(tweed) and would just blow stuff that gave ya shivers and made ya want to either quit the instrument or start raising the bar on your own playing. Check it out...Its really quite amazing stuff.
And lets not forget Don Rich's contribution to country-fied pickin and a grinnin...Buck wasnt the same after Don was killed.

Find an old Jerry Reed record. That guy could go with the best of em..and was definately influenced by the Bakersfield pickin.
Then you get those English cats who dug that stuff.Albert Lee.Played like his hair was on fire...spoke like a perfect English gent.

And dont even get me started on the Reverend Gibbons.I've been a couple of feet from the Marshall whilst he'd be tweeking Pearly into some sort of blues riff.That stuff will make ya wanta be a blind man just to enjoy it more.

Cool thread all, this is why I love RO.

Treena, that would be awesome if possible! If so, I'll publish his ETA so we have a exciting turnout.

Cheers!

Re: Roy Nichols/ Merle Haggard question for Kurt Treena &amp

Big_D wrote: I posed this question to you both because of your knowledge of the Bakersfield sound but input from anyone is always welcome.

I became a fan of Merle Hagard in the late 70's after hearing a song he wrote for Lynyrd Skynyrd called "Honky Tonk Nightime Man". In it Steve Gains plays some amazing solos that sound just like Roy Nichols. I love Roys playing and Steves also which leads me to this, I would love to add this type of sound to several compositions I'm working on but have hit a brick wall. Here's why.

I realize most of the "sound" comes from the hands. After listening to Roy and reading about his technique I have learned that he would bend a note then pick it then release. Not easy to do but I'm learning along with some other tricks he employed.

My real problem (believe it or not) is amp and guitar settings. I'm playing a Strat through a Super Reverb and have also tried a Tele. Try as I may I can't get a sound that even closley resembles Country let alone Roy.

If someone could give me some pointers on pickup position and some starting points for Bass, Mid and Treble amp settings it would be greatly appreciated because I'm Lost.

TIA for any help you can give me.

One of my very 1st amps was infact a Peavy Heritage----Heavy s.o.b!---------2-12s B/Widows
I could crank it way up with no distortion (twang city) to say the least.
I find that when I play country,I some times prefer not to use a pick,Ill pull up on the strings and let go of them,while Im bending and releasing with my left-------------works for me.

audiokid wrote: Cool thread all, this is why I love RO.

Treena, that would be awesome if possible! If so, I'll publish his ETA so we have a exciting turnout.

Cheers!

:D Well, ya know, while we're at it, we can see if Roy can bring Elvis along too. It wouldn't hurt to ask... :D

:shock: Dont get me wrong, I love Elvis as much as anyone...He werent da KING fer nuttin....however, if we're bringin back the dead and theres a choice could we please make it Natalie Wood? I love her just a bit more in a different sorta way.......... :wink:

Find an old Jerry Reed record. That guy could go with the best of em..and was definately influenced by the Bakersfield pickin.

Yes indeed! And how come nobody's mentioned Chet Atkins?
I am truly inspired by Chet, and immensely enjoy all of his wonderful work. His gentleness almost overshadows his virtuosity! I've got a DVD video of Chet and Jerry that was filmed at the Bottom Line. Real guitar playing.

Tommy
Have you ever heard the record Chet Atkins and Les Paul made together called "Chester & Lester"? Coooooool stufffff!

But back to Merle .... one of the things I admire the most about Haggard is he is many things ... a poet, songwriter, a wonderful singer, killer guitar player ... but what I respect the most because I have been there and I know how tough it can be, he is a supurb band leader. Everytime I have ever seen them play live or on TV .... they have just knocked me out.

Yes indeed! And how come nobody's mentioned Chet Atkins?
I am truly inspired by Chet, and immensely enjoy all of his wonderful work. His gentleness almost overshadows his virtuosity!

I was wondering the same thing. He is my favorite country player followed closely by Roy Nichols, Roy Buchanan and hey let's add Roy Clark to the list.

Tommy
Have you ever heard the record Chet Atkins and Les Paul made together called "Chester & Lester"? Coooooool stufffff!

That is truly a great album. Even better was to see them perform together at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York. I saw them twice and can honestly say they were the best concerts I have ever seen. Since Chet's passing in 2001 Les has invited many other music greats to join him on stage (Paul McCartney, Billy Gibbons and Dickey Betts to name a few) great shows all I'm sure.

Tommy, your a New Yorker, have you ever been to any of Les's shows?

But back to Merle .... one of the things I admire the most about Haggard is he is many things ... a poet, songwriter, a wonderful singer, killer guitar player ... but what I respect the most because I have been there and I know how tough it can be, he is a supurb band leader. Everytime I have ever seen them play live or on TV .... they have just knocked me out.

True and another quality often overlooked is his generosity. I've heard many stories of his kindness to others who really needed it. This may sound silly but I thought it was also pretty kind of him to write "Honky Tonk Nightime Man" for Skynyrd. He really liked and admired them and they thought he and the Strangers were the greatest band ever (along with the Swampers). Ronnie patterned a lot of what he did onstage after Merle. Merle could have made a fortune off of that song (it may be one of the best he ever wrote) but he gave it to Skynyrd and as far as I know never recorded it himself. Pretty cool in my book. That's the way the music biz used to be, great writing and performing and mutual respect, not who dresses the slutiest or which artist shot which other artist. I'll take the way it was any day.

Another great listen is Neck and Neck...Chet and some unknown player name of Mark Knofler.

Another great listen is Neck and Neck...Chet and some unknown player name of Mark Knofler.

Heard of it but never heard it, I'll give it a listen.

BTW, thanks for the info on Gains and his influences. The other stuff you mentioned sounds pretty cool also. I'll check it all out.

Thanks Dog.

Being a teen in the Philly area in the 70's this was not exactly the hotbed of country music if you know what I mean. Hee Haw was about as close as it got. All of this info from everyone is really appreciated!

Roy Nichol's guitars

Hi Folks,
I'm an old picker from during the early Hag era. I was a guest at one of Hag's Nashville sessions (If We Make It Through December) with a drummer friend, Peaches Price. One of Hag's bodyguards was a friend and we were from the same small okie town that where Merle once lived. Roy Nichols used a Telecaster and owned a number of them, but he also used a cheryburst and a black Les Paul. Here is a link to a You Tube where Nichols is playing. You can easily see what type of guitar(s) he used.

That should settle the issue. Further, Roy finally showed up on the forum via this video link.

Davedog, post: 149264, member: 4495 wrote: While I do not doubt the authenticity of Roy Nichols playing a Les Paul....all guitarists of this level have/had many guitars to choose from....The fact remains that he as well as three others,namely Roy Buchannan,James Burton, and Don Rich will be forever linked to their main axe, the Fender Telecaster.

One of the reasons the name is linked to Tele's is because Fender was one of their sponsors for many years and they were required to play Fenders at their shows. At home he was usually more comfortable with his Gibson.

okie, post: 231178 wrote: Roy Nichol's guitars

Hi Folks,
I'm an old picker from during the early Hag era. I was a guest at one of Hag's Nashville sessions (If We Make It Through December) with a drummer friend, Peaches Price. One of Hag's bodyguards was a friend and we were from the same small okie town that where Merle once lived. Roy Nichols used a Telecaster and owned a number of them, but he also used a cheryburst and a black Les Paul. Here is a link to a You Tube where Nichols is playing. You can easily see what type of guitar(s) he used.

That should settle the issue. Further, Roy finally showed up on the forum via this video link.

Wondering how he showed up on the forum when he passed away in July 2001?

NicholsD, post: 448277, member: 50433 wrote: One of the reasons the name is linked to Tele's is because Fender was one of their sponsors for many years and they were required to play Fenders at their shows. At home he was usually more comfortable with his Gibson.

not really. i saw Roy playing the Les Paul quite a bit at shows. both on TV and on the times i was lucky enough to see them live. also, for about the last 20 years in Merle's career , the band an Merle used Peavey amps. quite a few or Merle's "Tele's" weren't Fenders. the reason they all used Tele's was for the tone.

Kurt Foster, post: 448285, member: 7836 wrote: not really. i saw Roy playing the Les Paul quite a bit at shows. both on TV and on the times i was lucky enough to see them live. also, for about the last 20 years in Merle's career , the band an Merle used Peavey amps. quite a few or Merle's "Tele's" weren't Fenders. the reason they all used Tele's was for the tone.

I've played some Tele knockoffs - such as G&L ASATS - that have played far better than Tele's with the Fender name on the stock. In fact, I've played a few American Fender Teles in the last year or so that are neck-heavy, or that have had other issues. I also prefer Rosewood fretboards, and for whatever reason, they seem difficult to find in most music stores - at least around here. I've never liked any guitars with Maple Fretboards ... Strats, Teles, it doesn't matter, I just don't care for them.
Oh... I bought the G&L, by the way. ;)

agree on the maple vs rosewood. i recently sold my Tele that had binding and a rosewood fingerboard. i still have my Strat with rosewood but i am currently trying to sell it too. it's an Japanese E seires '85 that is nearly mint. hard to find a buyer that's willing to pony up what i think it's worth. if i can't i'll keep it til i take a dirt nap.

Kurt Foster, post: 448285, member: 7836 wrote: not really. i saw Roy playing the Les Paul quite a bit at shows. both on TV and on the times i was lucky enough to see them live. also, for about the last 20 years in Merle's career , the band an Merle used Peavey amps. quite a few or Merle's "Tele's" weren't Fenders. the reason they all used Tele's was for the tone.

I didn't say that Fender sponsored them for the entirety of their career, for the time that they did sponsor them they played Fender guitars on the road. I know this because he was my dad and played for Merle from the time I was born. He did play Gibson on the road when he could and he almost always played them at home. Most of the pictures I have of him at home he was playing a Gibson, he did really like the Peavey amps though. I have one of his tele's and a Fender amp.

i had the pleasure of meeting your Dad in the mid 70's when Merle and The Strangers played the county fair in my town. he was quite a gentleman.

my ex wifes Uncle by marriage, Jack Trent was a friend of Merle and Fuzzy's and when ever they rolled into town he would go to visit them. this time he brought us along and we got on the bus with Merle and visited for more than an hour and then we went over to the bands bus and met the band at which time i got to meet one of my heroes Roy Nichols and a few of the other band members. Bonnie was with them also and she took my then very young wife under her wing and protected her from the shenanigans of the boys in the band. lol. your Dad was one of the greats. i don't need to tell you that though. it's a pleasure to have you here on RO.

Kurt Foster, post: 448302, member: 7836 wrote: i had the pleasure of meeting your Dad in the mid 70's when Merle and The Strangers played the county fair in my town. he was quite a gentleman.

my ex wifes Uncle by marriage, Jack Trent was a friend of Merle and Fuzzy's and when ever they rolled into town he would go to visit them. this time he brought us along and we got on the bus with Merle and visited for more than an hour and then we went over to the bands bus and met the band at which time i got to meet one of my heroes Roy Nichols and a few of the other band members. Bonnie was with them also and she took my then very young wife under her wing and protected her from the shenanigans of the boys in the band. lol. your Dad was one of the greats. i don't need to tell you that though. it's a pleasure to have you here on RO.

Thank you for sharing your story, my dad was an exceptional man all the way around, I miss him very much! And Bonnie was just an angel on earth, everyone who ever met her felt the same way. Now that they're all gone it feels like the good times really are over for good.