B.C RICH GUITARS

B.C. Rich is a manufacturer of guitars and bass guitars started by the late Bernardo Chavez Rico. They are known for designing guitars with unconventional designs.[citation needed] Currently, most B.C. Rich guitars are manufactured in Asia, but luthiers of the company's custom shop continue to hand-make instruments. Hanser Music Group now operates the Southern California B.C. Rich custom shop. As of 2007, no member of the Rico family is involved in the production of B.C. Rich guitars.
The B.C. Rich guitar company was started in 1972 by the late Bernardo Chavez Rico (or "Bernie, Sr.") as a repair shop primarily for Spanish and Classical-style guitars. Later Bernie expanded into solid-body electrics after repairing the snapped neck of Bo Diddley's legendary Gretsch. Bernie built 350 Acoustic guitars during these first 2 years. B 21, B 28, B 38 and B 41 models. An answer to the Martin series upgraded, using classical scalloped shaved X bracing on their spruce tops and incredible master Grade woods. Many of these high end guitars had beautiful figured Brazilian rosewood back and sides aged over 40 years before they began building them. They had ebony fingerboards using the classic diamond inlays markers. Rico adopted the professional name "B.C. Rich" The history behind the name is that Rico had a friend named Bobby Rich who adopted the Hispanic name "Roberto Rico", so Bernie Rico reversed the process and adopt the name "B.C.Rich" for his guitars.
As popularity and demand grew, Rico wanted to start mass producing guitars for a much lower price to a much wider audience. B.C. Rico was the name originally given to these imported B.C. Rich guitars that Rico had manufactured in Japan and sold in the US. This name was given to make a distinction between the US made and imported guitars, but was dropped due to a lawsuit filed by the Rico reed company. Only several hundred of these are believed to have made it into the US. These Japanese (and later Korean) made guitars were subsequently known as the NJ series, which originally stood for Nagoya, Japan, the place where they were manufactured. NJ still serves to distinguish an imported line of B.C. Rich guitars and basses, along with the even cheaper Platinum and Bronze series. There was also a very inexpensive Rave series in the eighties, as well as a higher-quality L.A. Series. The B.C. Rico and early NJ guitars and basses were of neck-through body construction, and were very well made instruments. The present imported guitars are mostly basic bolt-on neck construction (except for the current NJ Classic and N.T. series). B.C. Rich also created an innovation known as I.T. (Invisibolt Technology) which bolts the neck extremely deep into the body rather than the typical neck joint. By the mid-1980s, B.C. Rich's guitars were widely used in heavy metal -- partly because the instruments' unusual designs were deemed more appropriate for the threatening image many metal performers wanted to project. The popularity of B.C. Rich instruments among metal musicians continues to the present.


BC Rich Warbeast WMD Review:

Features : 9 It has the rear part of a Warlock and the "horns" of a Son of a Beast, along with a Beast headstock. The fingerboard is ebony, 24 frets and has no inlays, only dots on the side. It has red pinstripes that intertwine along the upper and lower body edges and everything else, including the metal parts, is black. It has an original Floyd Rose tremolo and locking nut. The neck pickup is a Rockfield Mafia and the bridge pickup is a Rockfield Fat-Ass, both humbuckers. There is a 3-way selector, volume knob and tone knob as well. It has virtually everything you need. It's a beautiful piece of workm, really!
Sound : 8 It's made for metal and it delivers good. I've used it with a PODxt with output from a marshall valvestate combo amp and a marshall MG100 amp with a marshall cabinet. It sounds awesome, especially with LOTS of gain, which i frequently use. ;) The pickups are great if you like passive pickups, but I just swapped mine to an EMG-81(b)/85(n) setup and couldn't be more satisfied with the sound! The Mafia pickup makes for an awesome neck-pickup with rich and wide sound with lots of bottom (as well as good looks, since they are ceramic) and the Fat-Ass pickups feel pack a real punch as well, although I did feel I lacked a bit of sustain with these pickups.
Action, Fit, & Finish : 10 Factory defaults were great, although I restrung and tuned down mine shortly after purchase. I put on Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky(.012-.56-strings and tuned down to C. I needed to install another spring to keep the bridge in place, though. The action was pretty low, just the way I like it.
Reliability/Durability : 9 I accidentally hit the tip of one of the horns on the headstock on a table and a piece of the tip chipped. There are a lot of edges to hit on this beauty, but if you're a bit careful, you'll probably manage fine! =) The rest is made of high-quality parts and the bridge is an Original Floyd Rose, and believe me, I abuse my whammy quite alot and I've had no side-effects whatsoever. I hardly ever need to tune it! I did change the straps to Schaller Strap-locks for that extra reliability though. I did that even before plugging it in for the first time.
Overall Rating : 10 I'm really satisfied with this guitar! Especially after swapping to the EMGs! I reckon I will probably use it for the rest of my life. It works really well when tuned down and can probably even go a lot lower than C! The C-tuning didn't mess up the intonation at all, really. I've had minimal problems with this beauty, although I did get a few electrical "shocks", if you will, from it, but they were so weak I rather found them quite charming.


BC Rich Mockingbird Special "X" Review:

Features : 10 Neck-through, Tone-Pros bridge and tailpiece, Grover tuners, Rockfield SWV pickups. Awesome top and weight is very easy on the back. Solid mohagany body w/maple top.
Sound : 10 This thing realy rocks!!! It sounds thick and meaty, but smooth and sweet. It kills most new Les Pauls in the sustain and overall tone. Played through my various Orange amps and my ac30 It will go from smooth and jazzy to thick and growly. I just can't get enogh of this thing.
Action, Fit, & Finish : 8 Finish looks good from a distance but is somewhat sloppy. Tha frets are finished nicely but the paint is laid on a little weak. But the neck plays like god. The settup was fine after a little tweaking (bought at Guitar Center, uhg). Stays in tune even after severe bending and thrashing.
Reliability/Durability : 10 This guitar is pretty stout, solid as a rock. Pro hardware, pro pickups, neck-through, I don't foresee any problems. But I always gig with a backup.
Overall Rating : 10 I truly believe this is the best buy out there right now. I bought it on a whim and never looked back. I would definately buy another if this one were stolen. This is my new favorite in my room of SGs and Les Pauls.