While I usually answer a question submitted by a reader, this month I’m going to
discuss a guitar I recently encountered at the 2012 Dallas International Guitar
Festival. At the festival, Chad Speck from Encore Music in Minneapolis was showing
this near-mint Mockingbird Supreme—an excellent example of craftsmanship from
the early days of B.C. Rich. Let’s take this opportunity to explore both this guitar
treasure and the history of the company.
B.C. Rich guitars are typically associated with artists like Kerry King of Slayer,
Zoltan Bathory of Five Finger Death Punch,
and Marc Rizzo of Soulfly, but their origins
actually go all the way back to the 1960s
and acoustic guitars. Bernardo “Bernie”
Chavez Rico began his career as a luthier by
building classical and flamenco guitars in
his father’s Los Angeles guitar shop in the
early ’60s. By the latter part of the decade,
he began experimenting with electric guitars, crafting instruments based on designs
from Fender and Gibson. But Bernie Rico
wanted a guitar that represented his tastes
and ideals, and in 1971, he built his first
original design, the B.C. Rich Seagull.
With a sleek and curvy body shape, fast
neck, and hot-rodded circuitry and pickups,
the Seagull was certainly an eye-catching
model. In 1974, luthier Neal Moser joined
Rico at B.C. Rich and they introduced
a number of other unique instruments,
including the Eagle, the Ironbird, the
provocatively named Bich, and the guitar
shown here—the Mockingbird.
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 inlay
and 6-way varitone switch. BOTTOM: B.C. Rich first introduced the Mockingbird around 1976, and
this guitar’s serial number suggests it was built in 1978.
Mockingbird guitar is a Supreme model,
determined by the abalone cloud inlays and
a 6-way varitone rotary switch.
The serial number on the guitar is
804XX, which most people would assume
to be a 1980 build from the traditional
YYXXX format. However, according to
documented B.C. Rich serialization, they
were producing more than 1,000 guitars
a year by the late 1970s and began using
numbers meant for the following year. In
1980, the first two numbers were reading
Aside from the original Seagull,
the original Mockingbird is
probably the most collectible
B.C. Rich guitar.
“ 82” and by 1981, they were off by four
years! This Mockingbird was most likely
built in 1978.
In the mid 1980s, B.C. Rich began
importing kits from Korea that were
assembled in the US, and by the late
1980s, the company was importing several
lines of guitars from both Japan and Korea.
Bernie Rico Sr. passed away in 1999 and
Bernie Rico Jr. continued the family’s guitar tradition at B.C. Rich until 2001. In
2005, he started his own guitar company
called Bernie Rico Jr. Guitars. B.C. Rich
continues to offer a wide variety of electric
guitars, and the Mockingbird remains an
important part of their product line. While
most production occurs overseas today,
B.C. Rich still operates a custom shop in
the US.
Aside from the original Seagull, the
original Mockingbird is probably the most
collectible B.C. Rich guitar. This guitar is
in “excellent-plus” to “near-mint” condition (very clean), and is currently valued
between $3,000 and $3,500. You really
don’t see too many of these in the vintage
guitar market, and to find one this clean is
truly special. Though most collectors don’t
have much of an interest in B.C. Rich, this
Mockingbird is definitely a treasure when it
comes to vintage guitars.
ZACHARY R. FJESTAD is author
of Blue Book of Acoustic Guitars, Blue
Book of Electric Guitars, and Blue Book
of Guitar Amplifiers. For more information,
visit bluebookinc.com or email Zach at
guitars@bluebookinc.com.
