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1983 USA Warlock (second hand)
Price paid...$400
Reviewed by Clammy
Features...8
This is an American, hand built work of guitar art!
This guitar features neck through construction, heel-less neck to body,
mahogany neck/body/wings, 24 jumbo frets, rosewood fret board with mother of
pearl dot inlays, translucent blue/green finish, single humbucker (bridge
position), fender type brass trem bridge, active pre amp, binding on front
of body, volume, tome, pre amp volume, mini toggle on/off pre amp switch,
Schaller tuners, and one of my favourite features: the old style reverse
headstock with the "r" logo m.o.p. inlay. The scale is 24
5/8".
I made a few mods after I bought the guitar, I
changed the original dimarzio super distortion pickup to a dimarzio x2n
power plus, I replaced the bridge saddles with graph-tech units, and I
disconnected the pre amp(just removed the battery)because the x2n has such a
high output I don't need it.(I also don't like the idea of having a battery
in my guitar.
Sound...10
I play metal and punk style music and this guitar
suits if perfectly. It weighs 10lbs and its mahogany so the tone is fat and
dark. With the x2n this baby screams!
I play it through a Marshall 100w full stack (model
4100 head and 2 4 *12 Marshall cabs) with the lead channel on 20,and loud!!!
I use a few boss rack units (cl 50 pro compressor, ge21 pro 21 band eq, ns50
pro noise suppressor), a nady rw3 uhf wireless system, a boss flanger stomp
box and a korg dt1 rack tuner.
Because the pickup is so hot it will distort even
the clean channel a bit. I can compensate this a little by turning the
guitar volume down, but I don' play clean that often and i have a bunch of
other guitars with neck pickups so it doesn't really matter to me.
Action, fit and finish...10
Since I bought this guitar used I had to have it set
up after I bought it. The guitar itself is beautifully made. It’s hand
built and you can tell by the attention to detail. The binding is perfect,
the fit and finish is impeccable and the design is incredible...no heel!!!!
The neck flows into the body. It has 24 frets but you could easily access
26...accessibility like no other guitar out there!
The paint is translucent and you can see the grain
of wood. The wings are matched to the neck and each other...again,
incredible workmanship!
Reliability/durability...10
There were a few road scars (oh well, what do I
expect from a 15 year old guitar?). Other than those, the finish is in
excellent shape. The neck through construction makes it very stable and very
strong. This guitar is easily up to the task of serious, hard ant lots of
gigging. It’s very dependable. The strap buttons are Schaller strap
locks...I put those on myself. I would bring a backup guitar to a gig simply
because stings sometimes break.
Customer support...10
I have dealt with BC Rich a number of times. They
are very helpful. Most of the tech info I got on this guitar I got from
them. They happily answered all my questions. Not sure about the warranty, I
think it's one year for new ones.
Overall rating...10
This is easily the most comfortable guitar I have
ever played. The neck is incredible! I’ve been playing for 14 years. Other
guitars I own. Gibson Flying V, Gibson Explorer, Gibson Les Paul custom.
These are great guitars but not in the same league as the Warlock. If
it were stolen or lost I’d cry because it would be almost impossible to
replace. Warlocks with the type of headstock like the one I have are rare. I
would probably buy a new one if I could afford it (a comparable new one
would start around $1500 us)
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