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This is the first part of the first chapter of the BOOK.

Every story has to start somewhere and this one has to start with the first thing that I did to create BC Rich history. Within the BOOK you wil see there were many people that helped to create the history of BC Rich.
 This all started in 1964. I had a Gibson B-25 Natural 6- string acoustic guitar. Problem, I needed a 12-string. Being only 21 years old I was a little short on cash. So I started thinking of how I could modify the 6-string into a 12-string. My father was an insurance salesman and a wonderful wood worker; in-fact he built a 42-foot sailboat in our driveway that was more beautiful than a factory built boat. Anyway, I went to my father and said, “Dad, I need to get a piece of wood down here on the butt of this guitar big enough to put 6 machine heads on.” he said “ No Big Deal.” So we took a piece of mahogany and epoxied it to the butt. He cut it to the contour perfectly so it looked like it was done at Gibson. Then we drilled the holes for the machine heads and installed them.
The next problem was what to do about mounting the strings. I drilled small holes in the head of the guitar and installed very small flared tubes. Then I ran the strings from the back of the head through the tubes and over the nut bone, over the bridge and to the machine heads. Wow, it worked. It was a great 12-string because it didn’t have a real wide neck, just wide enough. It was very cool and it recorded great, I still have records with that guitar on them. I tell this story so people understand just how far back my design for the Rich Bich 10-string goes. In 1977 I knew just what I wanted to do. I just had to design a body shape that would be conducive to putting machine heads on the butt and still have a unique, but cool shape. I think I succeeded. It’s 2002 and it’s still selling 25 years later. Not quite Fender, but getting there.
    After my dad and I modified that guitar into a 12-string I assumed I was a guitar builder. So, I took it to a friend that worked at a music store to show him what I had done. He was impressed and said he might be able to get me a job at Warwick Electronics, that’s where they imported VOX Guitars & Amps into the U.S.A. I bluffed my way through the interview and got the job.
    It was short lived. Three months later I was in the Navy. Three years shot to hell and I was out in 69’ (this was truly a great year.) I got out of the Navy, got divorced, stopped smoking, and got a job in a repair shop called West Coast Organ & Amp. The guy needed a guitar repairman because all he could do was repair organs & amps. Anyway, strangely enough during the three months I worked at VOX I learned a lot about guitars that I didn’t know before. I had learned enough to actually do repair work. Time went on and the business had some problems and finally closed its doors forever. I was out of work.
    Three hours later a friend called me who worked at Barney Kessel’s Music World in Hollywood and asked me if I’d like to set up shop in their loft. I said “HELL YES.” There were two rooms in that loft and Milt Owen had the other one. At the time Milt Owen was the Southern California guru of guitar repair and helped me quite a lot. Not with guitar repair lessons, which I would have loved, but by referring work to me later on after Barney Kessel’s closed down. I did mostly pick-up installation and custom electronics. I did build a couple of bolt on guitars while I was there.
    After Kessel’s closed down I went home to my garage like all good guitar repairman do at some time or another. It was at that time that Milt Owen helped me a great deal. He had moved to Morey Steins Violin Shop across from the Musicians Union on Highland in Hollywood. Fortunately, Milt only did fret, bone & set-up work. He always sent me his electronic work, which included some heavyweight rock stars like Terry Kath of Chicago (actually, Chicago Transit Authority at that time in space.)
    During this period of self-isolation in my garage I did lots of different kinds of guitar work but my love at that time was custom electronics. I don’t claim to have invented any special kind of electronics. I just had a knack for tinkering with stuff to make it work better. I messed with transistor preamps, varitones, kinda like the ones in 345 Gibsons that I hate.
    Dan Armstrong, Kent Armstrong's father, used to come over and we’d jam in my front room. Dan could play some good shit. Anyway, Dan called me one day and said he had to go to England about an amp deal, Orange something-or-other, but before he left he wanted to give me something. He said I was the only one in L.A. that had a clue. He told me how to split and phase Humbucking pick-ups. No one was doing that then, we’re talkin’ 73’. You had to take the pickup completely apart and separate the wires, add extensions and put it all back together. If you've ever taken the cover off a Gibson Humbucking pickup you know what a pain that can be. I put together an electronic package that included split switches, out of phase switches, a very cool inductor coil varitone and an awesome preamp.
    At this point I started getting lots of guys coming over to my house to get their guitars hot rodded. I did lots of conversions from single P-90s to dual Hums with all the extra goodies. I changed Strats from 3-way switches to 3 mini out of phase switches so you can get all the combinations and phasing. A lot of them had me put in boosters too.
    While doing this stuff I met some great musicians who I became good friends with. One of these gentlemen had more to do with guitar history than he could have possibly known at the time. His name is Domenic Troiano who was with a band from Canada named “Bush”. This was an awesome band and they got shelved because the record company chose to push someone else they had signed. Domenic had me install lots of cool electronic stuff in this double neck guitar he had, but the guitar needed paint. He asked me where he should take it to be painted. I called Milt. Milt said there was a little place in East L.A. called Bernardos Guitar Shop and that they did really good finish work. I told Domenic and he went there. About a week or so later I get a call from Bernardos Guitar Shop. I say “Hello” he says “Hi, my names Bernardo Rico and I own Bernardos Guitar Shop and I’m looking at the electronics in Domenic’s guitar and they’re awesome.” He says he’d like me to come to the shop as soon as I can because he wants to talk to me about using my electronic design in his new guitar, called the Seagull. He had built 16 of them and they were wired like Les Pauls. I said “Sure”. The next day I took a trip to East L.A. Quite an experience for a white boy who grew up in Burbank, California. We met and discussed my electronics, his guitars and how we should join them. He invited me home for dinner to meet his wife and kids and talk. While there I sketched out the layout of the pots & switches on a piece of paper and they didn’t change for almost ten years. I converted the 16 original Seagulls over to my electronic design by sticking the switches wherever I could fit them. After that we started with Seagull #1 with my electronic design. The rest is history.
       

This is a picture of me at 21 years old holding the Gibson B-25 Natural 6 string guitar that my Father and I converted into a 12 string guitar. This was taken in 1964

The first song ever recorded with this guitar was called "Baby Please" I wrote and sang it. The band was called The Tigers.

To hear " Baby Please " CLICK HERE

THE BOOK IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

 
    
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