Scythe

That's the name. It became the "Virgin" when I licensed Class Axe to build it.
Here's the story.

In 1986, not too long after I'd left BCR, I decided to design a guitar with a Gothic Metal feel. The Warlock did well and I figured I needed to get into that market. The trick was to design a guitar that had the same feel as the Warlock without doing a spin-off. So, I started with a blank sheet of paper. After laying out the balance points I started to fill in the blanks. I've never been one to spend a whole lot of time drawing on a piece of paper. I head right for the poster board. I lay them out full size right of the bat. That's just my personal taste. Different designers have their own ways of doing things. When I was finished with the design, I laid the Warlock template down on top of it. There were no intersecting lines. I've heard people say that the Virgin was a Warlock spin-off. They obviously don't know what a spin-off is. Spin-off guitars use the preexisting shape of a guitar and then add or subtract pieces until there is a noticeable change. I've done spin-offs of my own designs many times. People have been doing Strat spin-offs for years, including myself. There are more Strat spin-offs than anything else. Getting back to the Scythe. At the 1987 Winter NAMM we had a Scythe in the Neal Moser Guitars (GMW) booth, which was very close to the BC Rich booth which was being shared by Class Axe. Class Axe was handling the BCR import line. I had known Charlie Stringer, who was a friend of Bernie's, for a long time and he introduced me to Randy Waltuch, who along with Charlie, owned Class Axe. Randy and I became good friends and after the NAMM he called me. Randy said he needed a new shape to liven up the import line. He said he liked the Scythe. I told him I would make a body and send it to him instead of a drawing or template. It would be easier to copy that way. We got our business arrangement worked out and I started to work on the body. I decided that I didn't want to send him an exact copy. I wanted to keep the original shape for myself. (As you look at the pictures below of the Prototype I will point out the differences).
Now to explain the name change. Randy liked the name Scythe, but Charlie, being the GUTTER SLIME guy that he told everybody he was (I loved Charlie, he was a great guy. R.I.P.), wanted to call it the Virgin. So, I said what the hell, I'm getting royalties, why not. It's that simple. They ran ads in Guitar Player Magazine giving me credit for the design as they said they would. When Bernie got BC Rich back, low and behold, there was a new design. Randy told Bernie if he wanted to use the Virgin, he would have to call me and get permission, Bernie never called, he just built it without my permission. I would have had to sue him to get my royalties, and I didn't have the money to do that. Bernie didn't bother to transfer my Bich royalties to Class Axe either. Somebody seems to owe me a LOT of back royalties. Ya think I'll ever get them?

"Bich, Seagull, Mockingbird, Eagle, Warlock and Beast" and "BC RICH' are registered trademarks of B.C. Rich, and no endorsement, sponsorship or affiliation by B.C. Rich is intended or implied."