Bc Rich Serial Number
more... Gear • Gear Blog • Gear Galleries • Guitars • Solidbody • Humbucker-equipped • Trash or Treasure • Solidbody • July 2012 • BC Rich
Apr 23, 2010 It says 'BC Rich, LA California' with a serial number embossed in the middle. Either way, this isn't a collectible or desirable BC Rich. The US-made neck through models from the 70's and early-mid 80's are what people want. And neck through design was a. I tried to look it up but could not find any mention of the B XXXX format on the serial number. In case you are wondering about the tag in the pics, he recently had it for sale at a local shop. Hall of Fame. Unfortunately a lot of the BC Rich imports dont get the resale value they should imo. If I saw one like that in.
TOP: Mockingbirds were available with options for Standard, Deluxe, or Supreme appointment levels.This Mockingbird is in the Supreme camp, as evidenced by the fretboard’s abalone cloud inlayand 6-way varitone switch. BOTTOM: B.C. Rich first introduced the Mockingbird around 1976, andthis guitar’s serial number suggests it was built in 1978.
Note from Zach:
While I usually answer a question submitted by a reader, this month I’m going todiscuss a guitar I recently encountered at the 2012 Dallas International GuitarFestival. At the festival, Chad Speck from Encore Music in Minneapolis was showingthis near-mint Mockingbird Supreme—an excellent example of craftsmanship fromthe early days of B.C. Rich. Let’s take this opportunity to explore both this guitartreasure and the history of the company.
Bc Rich Serial Number Starts With 311
B.C. Rich guitars are typically associatedwith artists like Kerry King of Slayer,Zoltan Bathory of Five Finger Death Punch,and Marc Rizzo of Soulfly, but their originsactually go all the way back to the 1960sand acoustic guitars. Bernardo “Bernie”Chavez Rico began his career as a luthier bybuilding classical and flamenco guitars inhis father’s Los Angeles guitar shop in theearly ’60s. By the latter part of the decade,he began experimenting with electric guitars,crafting instruments based on designsfrom Fender and Gibson. But Bernie Ricowanted a guitar that represented his tastesand ideals, and in 1971, he built his firstoriginal design, the B.C. Rich Seagull.
With a sleek and curvy body shape, fastneck, and hot-rodded circuitry and pickups,the Seagull was certainly an eye-catchingmodel. In 1974, luthier Neal Moser joinedRico at B.C. Rich and they introduceda number of other unique instruments,including the Eagle, the Ironbird, theprovocatively named Bich, and the guitarshown here—the Mockingbird.
During the 1970s, B.C. Rich producedguitars with different levels of trim, withthe appointments called Standard, Deluxe,or Supreme. Standard models typicallyfeatured what you would expect from thename: basic woods and simple appointments.Deluxe models were outfittedwith slightly better woods and appointments,while Supreme models boastedquilted woods, binding, abalone inlays,and more circuitry options. This particularMockingbird guitar is a Supreme model,determined by the abalone cloud inlays anda 6-way varitone rotary switch.
The serial number on the guitar is804XX, which most people would assumeto be a 1980 build from the traditionalYYXXX format. However, according todocumented B.C. Rich serialization, theywere producing more than 1,000 guitarsa year by the late 1970s and began usingnumbers meant for the following year. In1980, the first two numbers were reading“82” and by 1981, they were off by fouryears! This Mockingbird was most likelybuilt in 1978.
In the mid 1980s, B.C. Rich beganimporting kits from Korea that wereassembled in the US, and by the late1980s, the company was importing severallines of guitars from both Japan and Korea.Bernie Rico Sr. passed away in 1999 andBernie Rico Jr. continued the family’s guitartradition at B.C. Rich until 2001. In2005, he started his own guitar companycalled Bernie Rico Jr. Guitars. B.C. Richcontinues to offer a wide variety of electricguitars, and the Mockingbird remains animportant part of their product line. Whilemost production occurs overseas today,B.C. Rich still operates a custom shop inthe US.
Aside from the original Seagull, theoriginal Mockingbird is probably the mostcollectible B.C. Rich guitar. This guitar isin “excellent-plus” to “near-mint” condition(very clean), and is currently valuedbetween $3,000 and $3,500. You reallydon’t see too many of these in the vintageguitar market, and to find one this clean istruly special. Though most collectors don’thave much of an interest in B.C. Rich, thisMockingbird is definitely a treasure when itcomes to vintage guitars.
Zachary R. Fjestadis author of Blue Book ofAcoustic Guitars, Blue Bookof Electric Guitars, andBc Rich Serial Number Lookup
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