USA Bich

Reviewer:  Sounds Book of Music 1979

Strapping on a rich Bich is a bit like finding yourself behind the wheel of one of those classic British sports cars with its myriad of instruments and controls set in lush walnut fascia, after having spent most of your life driving around cocooned in molded black plastic.

This is an axe that oozes class; with its complex controls and beautiful finish it brazenly tells you that no expense has been spared to make the Bich the fastest thing on 10 strings.

Yes, I did say 10 strings. That’s why the Bich looks like someone has taken a large chunk out of its body with a meat cleaver.  Behind the bridge there are four extra tuning machines, which give you double string capacities on the top four strings. This creates a unique compromise between a conventional six string (which you can use the Bich if you wish) and a full twelve string.

Our test sample was a combination of top quality maple for the neck, which is one piece straight through design, and koa for the two outer body sections. Koa is a darker wood and not, to my mind, quite as attractive as the birds eye maple used for the mockingbird sample. But the maple is available as an alternative on this model and the koa version still looks pretty special with its high gloss finish and beautifully sculptured curves.

Being a one-piece design, the neck is heelless and wonderfully shallow. Combined with a rosewood fingerboard into which the wide flat frets are carefully merged at the edges, it ensures a dreamlike action with the feel of a played-in instrument rather than a brand new one.

Headstock is more or less the conventional two sided configuration but with the distinctive rich "lip" at the top and is fitted with heavy duty, fancy grover machines. Head plate is rosewood to match the fingerboard and is inlaid with genuine mother of pearl "r" to match the beautiful cloud shaped block position markers. Saddle length of a comfortable 24 1/2 inches and there are a full 24 frets. The bottom cutaway merging with the neck at number 22, thus ensuring easy access to the top of the fingerboard.

Two Dimarzio dual sound pickups are fitted and the 6 conventional strings are anchored by a heavily chromed Leon quad badass bridge/tailpiece. The four remaining strings are fed from holes in the headstock to the posts of 4 additional grovers mounted in a chevron behind the bridge for easy right hand tuning.

Now for the most complex part of all;  the electronics. The control area of the body sports no less than 6 knobs and 6 switches, the functions of which would take some time to suss out in the absence of a control diagram.  Fortunately I was spared the graft of working it all out and once you know what everything does its actually quite straightforward.  For convenience we can divide the controls into 2 elements-passive and active.  Nearest the bridge is the first of the passive controls, a master volume affect in both pickups, like the other 4 infinitely variable controls, it has a rigid, old style radio knob in black plastic with silver centre and clearly defined white position marker. The position of this is ideal for quick access and "violining" without being too prone to accidental knocking. The operation of the pot aids this by being smooth but fairly stiff.

Behind the first bank of switches are 5 more knobs. One of them controls rhythm (neck) pick up volume. this means you can still preset your rhythm volume independently of the treble pickup, as with the conventional 2 volume control arrangement, but this setup has the advantage of offering simpler overall volume control.

Right at the back is a pointer type black radio knob--the varitone selector that gives a choice of 6 quite useful and quite different preset tones. Next to it is a master tone knob. Directly below this are two mini toggles for coil tapping the front and back pickups separately. The pickup selector, situated near the master volume, is of the Gibson type and close to it is a bank of 3 switches, one of which alters the phase when both pickups are selected.  So much for the passive circuitry that leaves us with 2 knobs and 2 switches for the active element.

Quite simply the active part is a 2-stage pre amp, which enables you to select stun and kill controlling the levels of each stage separately.  Easy huh? But how does she work in practice, this Bich? Well, the biggest problem is trying to find a clean sound output from the Dimarzio is so high without the pre amp that on a lot of amps you'd have to have the guitar master volume notched down a bit to ensure the elimination of distortion. The selection of tonalities readily available makes for a versatile certainty, but I couldn't say it has a lot of intrinsic warmth.  As with the pre amps in operation you have to be very careful to avoid creating the kind of distortion sound that is more usually associated with imminent speaker cone destruction than sweet guitar sustain. With both pre amp stages in the ambient noise level is uncomfortably high too.  In its 10-string mode, the Bich is of limited use as a lead guitar. The twin strings do not take kindly to bending and I experienced some irritating tuning instability with my test sample (probably down to new strings) it was extremely tempting to rip off those extra strings and use it as a 6 string, so for people like me, BC Rich have produced the "Son of a Bich", with the same body shape but lacking those extra 4 tuning machines. The 10 string has the most potential, I felt, as a specialised studio and recording guitar and I can't honestly imagine anyone using one on stage all the time.

 I don't dispute the workmanship or the imagination that has gone into this design. There are loads of clever little details like the strap lock.  Like buttons hidden behind the front ant rear upper "horns", and the little rubber feet on the 2 rear tips so the wood doesn't get damaged when you stand the guitar up.