Update 10/14: Changed to 9-54 set, neck issues resolved
B.C. Rich Marc Rizzo Stealth
MSRP: $1400
Street Price $899
Price Paid: $670 shipped NIB
tl;dr? Just go get one. You'll thank me. Really.
I remember when I first played a USA Stealth. It was the mid-90's, a friend in a black metal band called Legion Victorious out of the Santa Cruz area had one. A REAL one. A mid to late 80's one hum, black USA BC Rich hardtail... a bit different than Chuck's, but every bit as amazing. It was kinda beat but it still played. Of course, I tried to offer money for it, but I could have thrown pockets full and the guy wouldn't sell, so I didn't try very hard. I have no idea what happened to the guy or where the guitar might be. I suspect he still has it and I would still offer silly money for it. Fast forward to about a week ago.
There's been a lot of discussion about Jackson and the fact that they've been moving production away from Japan. (the Chushin Gakki factory that has produced Jacksons and Charvels since 1986 closed down early this spring because Fender moved production of their guitars to other factories. My Charvel DX1 is a perfect example. It was made in China in December of 2011, before the Japanese factory was shut down due to lack of orders). During this discussion, World Guitars in Korea came up as offering a level of quality similar to those old MIJ Charvels and Jacksons that we prize so dearly. So, after having relegated MIK guitars as junk, I decided to see if the talk was true, so I found the cheapest new Stealth that I could find on ebay.
I'm a self admitted Custom Shop snob. I like nice guitars. I love handmade, quality craftsmanship. I've always wanted a Stealth. Ever since I first heard Death and saw Chuck Schuldiner play one in pictures I looked at as a child in my favorite guitar mags. If I were to place an order for a Stealth, I would have ordered it almost exactly like this. The only real difference would be that it would have been a 1 hum. So I decided to get this instead of wait 2 years for a Custom version. I'm glad I bought it. Here it is:
Of course, you notice... the body style is very similar to the Jackson Warrior, but a bit smaller. It sits in the classical position almost identically. It's a very comfortable guitar to play sitting, unless you have it plugged in. I didn't take a picture of it with a cord, but I should have. Whoever designed this should be shot. Sitting down plugged in is easily doable, but it's uncomfortable and in the way. It should have had an angled jack or a different location. Overall, the guitar is so nice that I can look past this issue.
It's a beautiful guitar and very well crafted. It reminds me of MIJ/USA Jackson. Wow, what the fuck? When you pick up a neck-thru USA Jackson, it has this feel. It's like picking up a piece of glass with your fret hand. Cold, smooth, consistent. This guitar nails that feel. As well as any Jackson either. How can this be? A sub $1000 guitar that has that USA Jackson feel? Really? Am I making this up?
Looking over it closely... I mean super nit-picky closely, I can't really find anything wrong. Wait, what? I recently bought a Charvel DX1 String Through that I reviewed... it was a couple hundred bucks cheaper, but still in a similar price range as this one for $670 shipped. The Charvel was $479 out the door. The comparable DX1 with Floyd would have been $11 cheaper than this on ebay. The Charvel had great components, a really well designed body and the neck played really well, but overall it was cheap and felt like an overpriced beginner's guitar. This? OMG. For all intents and purposes, if you told me this guitar was made at Chushin Gakki, the old MIJ Charvel/Jackson factory... or even if you told me this was built by USA Jackson, I would believe it. Really? I must be delusional.
I've always loved the B.C. Rich pointy. I don't know which came first, but in the early 80's it was just as droolworthy as any Jackson or any Charvel. It's an epic design that is as beautiful today as the day it was created. Just like my beloved Jackson pointy headstock, I love the design in reverse and black with white binding? That's just 80's metal staple. Food for shredding.
Looking closely, the binding is perfection. At least the equal of the old Model 6/650XL if not better. You can't see seams at the binding. At all. What the hell? My Charvel DX1 had sloppy binding and you could see every joint, but this? I'm shocked. The quality is on par with MIJ Jackson at it's finest hour. It's even better than many USA Jacksons? How could this be?
The neck heel is smooth and the cutout on the lower horn makes high register fret access a breeze. The paint is beautiful and consistent. The paint lines on the neck by the binding? It reminds me of a Jackson. It nails that look and feel better than Jackson does at times.
Ok, so the binding is MIJ Jackson quality or better... the paint is on par with it. There's gotta be something seriously flawed about this guitar. Looking over the neck, the frets are nice and smooth. Nicer than that DX1 I bought, and really close to USA quality. The inlays... no visible filler? Really? My DX1 has visible filler around the inlay... so do most of the USA Jacksons I've owned.
This guitar is too perfect. There has to be flaws. I looked all over in direct sunlight, in super-nitpicky mode. I didn't even go into super-nitpicky mode with the Charvel. It barely withstood a normal inspection. Ah ha! I found it... but I needed to use a 100mm macro lens with a flash to capture it. In normal daylight, it's a non-issue. Also note, you can clearly see the shims I needed to use on the nut to remove open-string buzz. The shim is made from the cardboard of a pack of American Spirit cigarettes. That's how thick it is and that's how small the flaw is. It's not really visible unless you look really closely. Almost nobody looks at a guitar THIS close:
It comes with Grover tuners that feel kinda cheap, but the pickups are EMG's, which I'm not really all that happy with. As you can see I swapped neck and bridge pickups as I always do with EMGs, but I'm not getting the tone I want out of it. For like the first time, I like the silver logo better at the bridge position. There's the 7 string Floyd Rose. I don't think it's an OFR made in Germany, but overall quality is fairly decent. The fine tuners are the pancake style you'd get with a German OFR, but they're a little thicker. They work fine though they're probably not as smooth.
Ebony fretboard... a really nice one, and very clean inlays... I tried to get a macro shot of the binding at the fretboard end past the 24th, but there is no visible seam to capture. Just wonderful craftsmanship. Excellent fret work. Very nice quality. Binding work is better than MIJ Jackson and in a lot of cases, better than USA/CS Jackson. Really? It's not that cheap binding either, it feels really similar to Jackson. It's far better work and binding than my USA Bernie Sr Custom Shop WHS Warlock that I owned... Yes, you read that right.
I couldn't even get a picture of binding seams. I tried. I took maybe a dozen pictures from different angles, different light settings, etc. They don't show in real life and they don't show in pictures. Wow.
So now I have a new 7-string. My first. I'm amazed every time I pick it up. It's no Custom Shop guitar, and that is pretty obvious when you pick it up. It's just another cookie-cutter, mass produced guitar, no different than many others. But it is different. The quality is remarkable. No. The quality is mind-blowing. This guitar cost $670 shipped when USA Jacksons cost $3k and the quality is really comparable.
Pros:
Relatively Cheap.
MIJ/USA Jackson level quality.
Wonderful 'glassy' feel.
Beautiful, high quality binding work.
Ebony fretboard with inlays with no real visible filler.
Floyd Rose is nice and tuning stability is great.
I could go on, I'll just shut up about the Pros.
Cons:
Grover tuners feel a little cheap.
Input jack location just plain sucks. It should have an angled jack.
Most people would say this neck dives. If they're not used to taming neck dive, then it's a big issue.
My neck was finicky, it required much trial/error and over 3 hours of time.
Required 1 full length shim and one half length shim under the bass side of the nut to get rid of open string buzz.
How does it play and sound?
I had a hell of a time setting this thing up. Mine was not for a beginner and it proved to be quite a challenge. After 3 hours of various truss settings and action height settings, my low B string is just under 3mm @ 24th, which compared to every 7 string I've ever played with factory setups, noticeably lower. From what I've read, I probably got a rare one that is difficult. Most reports are that they're smooth as butter, so I can't comment on this. I will say that after a good setup, I'm very happy with the action. While not as low as a 6 string Jackson that can go as low as you want, this one plays easily and none of the issues I had affects play while amplified.
The neck, feels like USA Jackson. It's glassy, it has that cool binding feel, it plays great. Does it have a 6-string super low action? No. I couldn't set it up super low and bring up to the action height I like, I needed to work the truss and the action to find a sweet spot. In the end, this is very acceptable to me. I may still take it to a luthier to level and crown the B and E string high registers, there is a little buzz past 12, just so I won't have to do this at a later date.
The EMGs are not satisfactory in my ears. It sounds decent with the 707 in the bridge position, but I think I'll try a blackout to see if I like it any better. It did plug into both of my practice amps, a Line 6 Spider 15 and Orange Dark Terror with MX-10 band EQ, and sounded very nice without having to tweak them. It plugged in and sounded just fine.
The acoustic tone of the guitar is very nice with great sustain. Even though there is the possibility that cheap woods hide underneath a great paint job... I don't think that's the case. It plays well and has a nice voice. It's fairly consistent across the strings and registers. I'm very happy with it. Sounds great and once I find the right pickup, I should be in heaven.
Conclusion:
Overall? This is an amazing guitar for the price. I'm a CS snob and this guitar has me completely satisfied, and I can't really say that very often, even with other CS pieces. Did I have an intense personal moment or did I uncontrollably cackle like a school girl like I did when I first played my Ibanez M8M? Not at all. But, when I swap back and forth between that $6k 8 string behemoth and the Stealth? I'm more than satisfied with either guitar and they actually compliment each other very well. The M8M is a guitar handcrafted at one of Japan's finest Custom Shops. All of Steve Vai's personal Jems are built there as are any Jems that sell for over $5k. It's truly a phenomenal instrument any way you look at it, except superficially. It does look kind of bland. The $670 B.C. Rich 7-string Marc Rizzo Stealth feels right at home next to that $6k Ibanez monster. That has me kind of scared, but in a happy way.
Can I recommend this guitar? If you read my DX1 review, I could not unconditionally recommend it. There were just too many quality issues and the price is too high. This Stealth? I won't just recommend it, I'll tell you that you're a freaking worthless loser poser if you don't immediately go out and buy either the Chuck Schuldiner model or this Marc Rizzo version. The only reason I can say why you shouldn't get one is if you can't live with the color or configuration. But I'll retort, man the fuck up and get one because they're fresh off the assembly line and they're fucking awesome.
Update: 10/14
So, after not being happy with the finicky neck, I bought a few sets of 9-54 D'Addario XL's 7-string Super Light pack, reset the truss to where it was when I got it, with no real tension and now it's playing like a charm. There's a little low E buzzing that's consistent and that doesn't bother me at all as you can't hear it amplified, the low B is buzzing consistently more, which isn't really audible through an amp, but is enough to bug me. So I'm gonna take it to my luthier to see if he can either shave some off the low B frets or add a shim under the bridge saddle. But in any event, it's playing as nice as ever with the first 5 strings ringing true, with an action just under 2mm @ 24th at the high E and 2.5-ish @ 24th on the low B. So while it's not playing as I would expect a USA Jackson to, it's 1/3 the price of a new one. Still love the hell out of this thing. I expect my luthier to give me a stupid face and telling me I'm being too nitpicky.
Just for shits and giggles, here's three of my main players, for size comparison. 2012 Ibanez 8-string Meshuggah Sig M8M Made in Japan, the 2012 B.C. Rich 7-string Marc Rizzo Sig Stealth Made in Korea and my baby, the 1989 Jackson Custom Strathead Dinky.
Seriously, if you want a 7-string or if you want a Stealth, the Marc Rizzo and Chuck Schuldiner guitars are both made in the World Guitars factory in Korea. If you haven't looked at a MIK B.C. Rich, shame on you. You should. You would probably be very, very impressed. I know I am.
B.C. Rich Marc Rizzo Stealth
MSRP: $1400
Street Price $899
Price Paid: $670 shipped NIB
tl;dr? Just go get one. You'll thank me. Really.
I remember when I first played a USA Stealth. It was the mid-90's, a friend in a black metal band called Legion Victorious out of the Santa Cruz area had one. A REAL one. A mid to late 80's one hum, black USA BC Rich hardtail... a bit different than Chuck's, but every bit as amazing. It was kinda beat but it still played. Of course, I tried to offer money for it, but I could have thrown pockets full and the guy wouldn't sell, so I didn't try very hard. I have no idea what happened to the guy or where the guitar might be. I suspect he still has it and I would still offer silly money for it. Fast forward to about a week ago.
There's been a lot of discussion about Jackson and the fact that they've been moving production away from Japan. (the Chushin Gakki factory that has produced Jacksons and Charvels since 1986 closed down early this spring because Fender moved production of their guitars to other factories. My Charvel DX1 is a perfect example. It was made in China in December of 2011, before the Japanese factory was shut down due to lack of orders). During this discussion, World Guitars in Korea came up as offering a level of quality similar to those old MIJ Charvels and Jacksons that we prize so dearly. So, after having relegated MIK guitars as junk, I decided to see if the talk was true, so I found the cheapest new Stealth that I could find on ebay.
I'm a self admitted Custom Shop snob. I like nice guitars. I love handmade, quality craftsmanship. I've always wanted a Stealth. Ever since I first heard Death and saw Chuck Schuldiner play one in pictures I looked at as a child in my favorite guitar mags. If I were to place an order for a Stealth, I would have ordered it almost exactly like this. The only real difference would be that it would have been a 1 hum. So I decided to get this instead of wait 2 years for a Custom version. I'm glad I bought it. Here it is:
Of course, you notice... the body style is very similar to the Jackson Warrior, but a bit smaller. It sits in the classical position almost identically. It's a very comfortable guitar to play sitting, unless you have it plugged in. I didn't take a picture of it with a cord, but I should have. Whoever designed this should be shot. Sitting down plugged in is easily doable, but it's uncomfortable and in the way. It should have had an angled jack or a different location. Overall, the guitar is so nice that I can look past this issue.
It's a beautiful guitar and very well crafted. It reminds me of MIJ/USA Jackson. Wow, what the fuck? When you pick up a neck-thru USA Jackson, it has this feel. It's like picking up a piece of glass with your fret hand. Cold, smooth, consistent. This guitar nails that feel. As well as any Jackson either. How can this be? A sub $1000 guitar that has that USA Jackson feel? Really? Am I making this up?
Looking over it closely... I mean super nit-picky closely, I can't really find anything wrong. Wait, what? I recently bought a Charvel DX1 String Through that I reviewed... it was a couple hundred bucks cheaper, but still in a similar price range as this one for $670 shipped. The Charvel was $479 out the door. The comparable DX1 with Floyd would have been $11 cheaper than this on ebay. The Charvel had great components, a really well designed body and the neck played really well, but overall it was cheap and felt like an overpriced beginner's guitar. This? OMG. For all intents and purposes, if you told me this guitar was made at Chushin Gakki, the old MIJ Charvel/Jackson factory... or even if you told me this was built by USA Jackson, I would believe it. Really? I must be delusional.
I've always loved the B.C. Rich pointy. I don't know which came first, but in the early 80's it was just as droolworthy as any Jackson or any Charvel. It's an epic design that is as beautiful today as the day it was created. Just like my beloved Jackson pointy headstock, I love the design in reverse and black with white binding? That's just 80's metal staple. Food for shredding.
Looking closely, the binding is perfection. At least the equal of the old Model 6/650XL if not better. You can't see seams at the binding. At all. What the hell? My Charvel DX1 had sloppy binding and you could see every joint, but this? I'm shocked. The quality is on par with MIJ Jackson at it's finest hour. It's even better than many USA Jacksons? How could this be?
The neck heel is smooth and the cutout on the lower horn makes high register fret access a breeze. The paint is beautiful and consistent. The paint lines on the neck by the binding? It reminds me of a Jackson. It nails that look and feel better than Jackson does at times.
Ok, so the binding is MIJ Jackson quality or better... the paint is on par with it. There's gotta be something seriously flawed about this guitar. Looking over the neck, the frets are nice and smooth. Nicer than that DX1 I bought, and really close to USA quality. The inlays... no visible filler? Really? My DX1 has visible filler around the inlay... so do most of the USA Jacksons I've owned.
This guitar is too perfect. There has to be flaws. I looked all over in direct sunlight, in super-nitpicky mode. I didn't even go into super-nitpicky mode with the Charvel. It barely withstood a normal inspection. Ah ha! I found it... but I needed to use a 100mm macro lens with a flash to capture it. In normal daylight, it's a non-issue. Also note, you can clearly see the shims I needed to use on the nut to remove open-string buzz. The shim is made from the cardboard of a pack of American Spirit cigarettes. That's how thick it is and that's how small the flaw is. It's not really visible unless you look really closely. Almost nobody looks at a guitar THIS close:
It comes with Grover tuners that feel kinda cheap, but the pickups are EMG's, which I'm not really all that happy with. As you can see I swapped neck and bridge pickups as I always do with EMGs, but I'm not getting the tone I want out of it. For like the first time, I like the silver logo better at the bridge position. There's the 7 string Floyd Rose. I don't think it's an OFR made in Germany, but overall quality is fairly decent. The fine tuners are the pancake style you'd get with a German OFR, but they're a little thicker. They work fine though they're probably not as smooth.
Ebony fretboard... a really nice one, and very clean inlays... I tried to get a macro shot of the binding at the fretboard end past the 24th, but there is no visible seam to capture. Just wonderful craftsmanship. Excellent fret work. Very nice quality. Binding work is better than MIJ Jackson and in a lot of cases, better than USA/CS Jackson. Really? It's not that cheap binding either, it feels really similar to Jackson. It's far better work and binding than my USA Bernie Sr Custom Shop WHS Warlock that I owned... Yes, you read that right.
I couldn't even get a picture of binding seams. I tried. I took maybe a dozen pictures from different angles, different light settings, etc. They don't show in real life and they don't show in pictures. Wow.
So now I have a new 7-string. My first. I'm amazed every time I pick it up. It's no Custom Shop guitar, and that is pretty obvious when you pick it up. It's just another cookie-cutter, mass produced guitar, no different than many others. But it is different. The quality is remarkable. No. The quality is mind-blowing. This guitar cost $670 shipped when USA Jacksons cost $3k and the quality is really comparable.
Pros:
Relatively Cheap.
MIJ/USA Jackson level quality.
Wonderful 'glassy' feel.
Beautiful, high quality binding work.
Ebony fretboard with inlays with no real visible filler.
Floyd Rose is nice and tuning stability is great.
I could go on, I'll just shut up about the Pros.
Cons:
Grover tuners feel a little cheap.
Input jack location just plain sucks. It should have an angled jack.
Most people would say this neck dives. If they're not used to taming neck dive, then it's a big issue.
My neck was finicky, it required much trial/error and over 3 hours of time.
Required 1 full length shim and one half length shim under the bass side of the nut to get rid of open string buzz.
How does it play and sound?
I had a hell of a time setting this thing up. Mine was not for a beginner and it proved to be quite a challenge. After 3 hours of various truss settings and action height settings, my low B string is just under 3mm @ 24th, which compared to every 7 string I've ever played with factory setups, noticeably lower. From what I've read, I probably got a rare one that is difficult. Most reports are that they're smooth as butter, so I can't comment on this. I will say that after a good setup, I'm very happy with the action. While not as low as a 6 string Jackson that can go as low as you want, this one plays easily and none of the issues I had affects play while amplified.
The neck, feels like USA Jackson. It's glassy, it has that cool binding feel, it plays great. Does it have a 6-string super low action? No. I couldn't set it up super low and bring up to the action height I like, I needed to work the truss and the action to find a sweet spot. In the end, this is very acceptable to me. I may still take it to a luthier to level and crown the B and E string high registers, there is a little buzz past 12, just so I won't have to do this at a later date.
The EMGs are not satisfactory in my ears. It sounds decent with the 707 in the bridge position, but I think I'll try a blackout to see if I like it any better. It did plug into both of my practice amps, a Line 6 Spider 15 and Orange Dark Terror with MX-10 band EQ, and sounded very nice without having to tweak them. It plugged in and sounded just fine.
The acoustic tone of the guitar is very nice with great sustain. Even though there is the possibility that cheap woods hide underneath a great paint job... I don't think that's the case. It plays well and has a nice voice. It's fairly consistent across the strings and registers. I'm very happy with it. Sounds great and once I find the right pickup, I should be in heaven.
Conclusion:
Overall? This is an amazing guitar for the price. I'm a CS snob and this guitar has me completely satisfied, and I can't really say that very often, even with other CS pieces. Did I have an intense personal moment or did I uncontrollably cackle like a school girl like I did when I first played my Ibanez M8M? Not at all. But, when I swap back and forth between that $6k 8 string behemoth and the Stealth? I'm more than satisfied with either guitar and they actually compliment each other very well. The M8M is a guitar handcrafted at one of Japan's finest Custom Shops. All of Steve Vai's personal Jems are built there as are any Jems that sell for over $5k. It's truly a phenomenal instrument any way you look at it, except superficially. It does look kind of bland. The $670 B.C. Rich 7-string Marc Rizzo Stealth feels right at home next to that $6k Ibanez monster. That has me kind of scared, but in a happy way.
Can I recommend this guitar? If you read my DX1 review, I could not unconditionally recommend it. There were just too many quality issues and the price is too high. This Stealth? I won't just recommend it, I'll tell you that you're a freaking worthless loser poser if you don't immediately go out and buy either the Chuck Schuldiner model or this Marc Rizzo version. The only reason I can say why you shouldn't get one is if you can't live with the color or configuration. But I'll retort, man the fuck up and get one because they're fresh off the assembly line and they're fucking awesome.
Update: 10/14
So, after not being happy with the finicky neck, I bought a few sets of 9-54 D'Addario XL's 7-string Super Light pack, reset the truss to where it was when I got it, with no real tension and now it's playing like a charm. There's a little low E buzzing that's consistent and that doesn't bother me at all as you can't hear it amplified, the low B is buzzing consistently more, which isn't really audible through an amp, but is enough to bug me. So I'm gonna take it to my luthier to see if he can either shave some off the low B frets or add a shim under the bridge saddle. But in any event, it's playing as nice as ever with the first 5 strings ringing true, with an action just under 2mm @ 24th at the high E and 2.5-ish @ 24th on the low B. So while it's not playing as I would expect a USA Jackson to, it's 1/3 the price of a new one. Still love the hell out of this thing. I expect my luthier to give me a stupid face and telling me I'm being too nitpicky.
Just for shits and giggles, here's three of my main players, for size comparison. 2012 Ibanez 8-string Meshuggah Sig M8M Made in Japan, the 2012 B.C. Rich 7-string Marc Rizzo Sig Stealth Made in Korea and my baby, the 1989 Jackson Custom Strathead Dinky.
Seriously, if you want a 7-string or if you want a Stealth, the Marc Rizzo and Chuck Schuldiner guitars are both made in the World Guitars factory in Korea. If you haven't looked at a MIK B.C. Rich, shame on you. You should. You would probably be very, very impressed. I know I am.
Comment