Establishment

Establishment
By Bernie Chavez Rico (1941~1999), the B.C.Rich bland was beginning from in 1968 for electric guitars. By early 70's, they built some custom made guitars like a Fender or Gibson types. In 1972, they established the REAL B.C.Rich bland as active electronics and neck thru by Seagull.

This is the first B.C.Rich Bass (Special thanks to Mr. Mal Stich)

Seagull

The original Seagull was discontinued in 1976, however some seagulls were build as the custom made later. The most of Seagull have Guild pickups, mahogany body.

This is the very rare Seagull 5pieces Koa wood made in 1981. Easy to imagine that Eagle was designed as the modification of Seagull.

Seagull/Seagull II

B.C.Rich manufactured hand made Acoustic guitars till 1982 as regular line.
Cause of the head craftsman's death, the acoustics were discontinued.
Later, acoustic guitars are back again as the custom shop models and import models.

Here is an original B-28 acoustic that is made in 1975. The hand written S/N is 502338.
The sound is fantastic. You can listen below MP3 files.

This is the B-38. Brazilian Rosewood are used to side and Back. (Special thanks to Mr. Mal Stich)

Eagle

In 1975, the original Seagull was redesigned as Seagull II. And in 1976, Seagull II was discontinued and Eagle was born. Eagle is the standard of B.C.Rich as Solid Koa or Maple neck thru and sandwiched wing body, 24 frets, active electronics (booster, phase, tap, varitone), Grover Imperial tuner, Badass bridge, Dimarzio pickups. In those days, the price of Eagle in Japan was about US$4000 of current rate(Because US$1 = Japanese 360Yen in 1976 ).

There were standard Eagle with diamond inlay and Supreme with cloud inlay or binding. The Supreme was a little expensive. Some Supreme have full electronics same as Bich. The Seagull's circuit was redesigned into for Eagle by Mr.Neal Moser.

Mockingbird

In 1976, Mr. Neal Moser named the Mockingbird, which was designed by a gentleman named Johnny GoGo who worked at Whittier Plaza Music in Whittier California . The first Mockingbird was short scale bass guitar. The price was same as Eagle in Japan. Also the There were Supreme. As the variation, there are some short horn models around from '76 to early '80's.

Bich

In 1977, Bich was designed by Mr. Neal Moser. Bich was the pioneer of 10 strings guitar. The prototype #1 has a maple neck painted dark maroon and the sides are Black Walnut. The serial # is 9-77 (September 1977). They were introduced at the 1978 Winter NAMM.. There was a Bich in 78 catalog first. So, I say Bich was born in 1978 at this web site. The price was about US$6000 in Japan. Below photo was All Koa wood (No stripe)This is very rare model. 5 years ago, the same type of Bich was sold as US$8000!! ( Not this guitar.)