BC Rich Guru's - Educate Me Please

[Greg Crowe]

I've always loved the Warlock and have had my eye out for one for years but just have never really found what I wanted for a good price. Can somebody give me a quickie education on neck-thru BC Rich's? When were the "Class Axe" guitars made and during that time period were there any good neck-thru Rich's being handmade in the real Rich Custom Shop?

[toejam]

Re: BC Rich Guru\'s - Educate Me Please

The Class Axe guitars were made over here on the east coast when Ed Roman bought them out. I think it was in the early '90s, if I recall correctly. Ken (Warrior X7) used to work for them.

[Venomboy]

Re: BC Rich Guru\'s - Educate Me Please

If you really really want the dirt, go to Neal Moser's forum: http://www.acidpit.org/mcs/

Neal's a real straight shooter and is never hesitant to tell stories about the history of BC Rich.

This site has some good info too: http://www.bc-rich.com/

Here it is in a nutshell: from the late 70s thru early 80s, Neal Moser was there and BC Rich built killer neck thrus. These seem to be the Holy Grail guitars.

Neal leaves, and good guitars are still made, and imports are introduced. Later the company is sold to Class Axe. Quality seems to be all over the place with the consensus being that most of the stuff was crap with a few hidden gems.

In the late 90s BC Rich is bought back by Bernie Sr and the quality is back. USA and imports are still produced. Bernie dies, Bernie Jr takes over. Bernie Jr leaves and the company is sold to HHI, which owns it now. Imports are made overseas and Voodoo Guitar Works is a Ohio shop that builds BC Rich's USA production and Custom guitars. While Bernie was leaving, quality wasn't what it used to be. If you think Jackson has a long custom waiting list, I've heard of people waiting 2 years then getting something different than what they ordered or not getting anything at all.

It can be argued that BC Rich doesn't even make guitars. HHI is a holding company and other factories are making the guitars. Supposedly the quality in the USAs is back again. BC Rich has posted pics of new custom stuff on their site and they're finally, albeit slowly, responding to posts on their message boards about quality, service, etc.

Bottom line: early stuff is good. Late 80's thru 90s is questionable. Late 90's thru present can be really good. If it has Bernie Sr or Jr's sig on the headstock, chances are it's great.

Prices...all over the board. I've seen 10 string early Bich's sell for super cheap to super expensive on ebay. Right now BoogieStreet is selling lots of new old stock USAs for pretty high prices...$1900 seems to be the average. I got a used but practically unplayed USA Beast for $1000. I've seen good USA Warlocks sell from $500-$1900.

Again...go to the Moser forum and you'll get some more pricing info.

I'm probably messing up a few dates here and there but hopefully this will give you a start.

[j2379]

Re: BC Rich Guru\'s - Educate Me Please

wat venom said
Neal was there till 85 i believe, class axe took over around 87 & Bernie was back by 95

there were nice guitars built during the CA era. watch out tho some of the older high end imports DO NOT say NJ series. these will look identical to USA but the headstock veneer is much thinner & the routes different. also some class axe customs do not have the typical bcrich shaped route. also MANY extra necks, bodys, & neck thru blanks were floating around during the buy outs & ed

Greg if you find one LMK ill help ya ID it.

[Greg Crowe]

Re: BC Rich Guru\'s - Educate Me Please

I'll have to look for that one. I went ahead and picked this up just now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=33035

Yeah, it's most likely a Class Axe guitar but I love the snakeskin and it has a Floyd which is a requirement for me. I think I got a steal of a deal.

[jr73]

Re: BC Rich Guru\'s - Educate Me Please

very cool, those necks are real nice IMO. believe it or not there arent that many non strat shaped USA bolt ons.

[j2379]

Re: BC Rich Guru\'s - Educate Me Please

Greg theres a nice Neckthru Warlock on Ebay now, kinda cheap too. its greenish grey, 2 hums OFR dot inlays & pointy headstock w/ script logo.
its PRE-classaxe. i dont think its goin to sell for that much since its a later model w/dots script logo & OFR not really what collectors want but still a nice guitar.

[Anders]

Re: BC Rich Guru\'s - Educate Me Please

Great graphic on that one Greg! I'd like to own a Warlock too...


Anders