History of B.C. Rich Guitars

BC Rich Guitars are a company specialising in pointed and extreme electric guitar shapes and styles best suited for rock, hard rock and heavy metal music. Bernardo Chavez Rico was a doubtful individual to create distinctive guitars. Bernardo Rico (aka “Bernie”) was an accomplished Flamenco acoustic musician. From the early to mid 60s Bernie Rico exclusively created Flamenco guitars in Bernardo’s Guitar Shop in Los Angeles, California. Ex- Vice President, Mal Stich, comments, “When you walked into Bernardo's the first thing you saw was wall to wall electric guitars hanging from the wall like birthday celebration balloons. There was a glass counter with picks, strings, guitar components and accessories. Behind the counter was a window and you could actually watch the guys making guitars. And, the coolest thing was that there were usually Flamenco and Classical musicians jamming. I recall Flamenco musicians firing at one another with riff-after-riff. Bernie's dad, Bernardo Mason Rico, was usually sitting in his chair next to the Coca Cola soda machine while buddies and neighbors, even the postman, watched enthralled as they listened to the music.”

We are recognizing BC Rich Guitar’s Fortieth Anniversary marking 1969 as the time Bernie embarked on his first attempt to manufacture guitars and basses. It has been recorded that 10 basses influenced by the Gibson EB-3 electric bass in addition to 10 matching Les Paul inspired electric guitars were all handcrafted. Today few of these instruments exist, it's thought that fewer than the number above were actually finished.

The time around 1972 was exceptionally auspicious. The initial guitar design, the Seagull, was hand-crafted in Bernardo’s shop. True to future form, the Seagull was visually distinctive along with revolutionary. Its neck-thru design (now an embarkment of BC Rich Guitars) featured a heel-less construction – extremely uncommon for that era.

Bernie soon employed a number of talented designers to compliment his very proficient builders. Most of the distinct shapes and styles that emerges from this expansion have turn out to be iconic shapes associated with guitars. Approximately around 1976 came the Mockingbird, and then the further improvement of the Seagull, the Eagle emerged, and around 1978 arrived the Bich was introduced. A number of the most admired guitar players instantly took to the brand new trend of BC Rich Guitars.

With rising achievement, there was a desire for a cheaper mass-produced BC Rich guitar. Around 1978 Bernie set up the BC Rico brand name to designate guitars to be imported from Japan. This first try was not successful when the Rico Reed Company filed a lawsuit over the use of the brand. Regardless of the outcome, the decision had already been made to implement the BC Rich mark on imported guitars. Merely a handful, maybe a hundred or so BC Rico guitars ever made it to the US.

When the early 80s arrived, the Warlock was introduced. Almost instantly the hair metal culture of the time took to the Warlock’s edgy and distinctive contour. The Warlock, while nowhere close to the latest shape innovated, rounds out the first 5 classic BC Rich shapes and styles.

The 1990s and 2000s saw a new crop of brutal models even pointier than the 1980s designs. These included the Ignitor, Draco, Zombie, Beast (designed by Brian Hoffman, guitarists of death metal band Deicide), Warbeast (a mixture of Beast and Warlock).

BC Rich are also recognized for their endorsement deals with a number of important and respected hard rock and metal guitarists including Kerry King of Slayer (whose signature guitar is diabolic V-shaped axe and has extensive tribal visual work over the guitar's body. He also has a signature guitar primarily based on the Warlock). The deceased guitarists, Chuck Schuldiner of Death (when Schuldiner died of cancer in 2001 BC Rich Guitars released a tribute model based on his number one guitar, the BC Rich Stealth). Paul Stanley of KISS, and Paolo Gregoletto (bassist of Trivium) are also endorsed BC Rich players. If you are like me, when you think of hard rock and metal... you think of legendary guitars like BC Rich. They helped form rock and roll.

Article Source: http://www.onlinearticlessite.com

Steve is a passionate music lover and guitar player who has been playing guitar for over 25 years. One of his favorite websites he uses for his guitar related resources is Gear-Vault.com, the best guitar review websites on the entire internet. Resource to History of B.C. Rich Guitars

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

# of Ratings = 1 | Rating = 1/5