Month: January 2010

When my son was young I used to do “guitar shows” for his classes, showing off 10 or so electric guitars that started with conventional shapes – a Les Paul and a Strat – and progressed to more unusual designs. I’d often conclude with this cool 1981 B.C. Rich Eagle and a rousing rendition of the theme from TV’s “Swamp Thing” that ended by me throwing the overdrive switch. The move always had the 30 little kids putting hands over their ears (and put big grins on their faces!). I’d ask the class to vote for their favorite, and the Rich almost always won the day (though the metallic green Ibanez Maxxas and the black graphite Bond Electraglide with LEDs were in the running).

That B.C. Rich ended up making unusual-shaped guitars was a bit ironic because Bernardo (Bernie) Chavez Rico, the brand’s founder and namesake, began his career following in the footsteps of his father (Bernardo Mason Rico) making classical and flamenco guitars in East Los Angeles. (Rico the elder also made other stringed instruments for local Mexican musicians.) Young Bernie actually studied with flamenco great Sabicas and hob-nobbed with Paco de Lucia and Carlos Montoya. In 1953 or ’54 Bernie started working in his father’s shop and by the mid ’60s was doing a lot of work for country western musicians, though he felt his name didn’t fit with his clientele. A friend named Bobby Rich performed as Roberto Rico and, taking a cue from his buddy, he anglicized his brand to B.C. Rich circa ’66.

Like another L.A.-area guitarmaker before him – Paul Bigsby – Rico was a biker. This gave him a taste for flashy finishes and soon he had a thriving business doing wild refins of electric guitars. By 1968, this led to his making his own custom solidbodies, mainly copies of Gibson and Fender models. By ’69 he was hanging with other guitar makers, including Rick Turner, which steered him in the direction of neck-through-body guitars with no heel. In ’71, Rico designed his first odd-shaped guitar, the Seagull, which debuted at the ’72 NAMM show. It was basically a tricked-out Les Paul-like single-cutaway shape with the cutaway horn flopped downward and a balancing point on the top of the upper bout. The guitar was embraced by Dominic Troiano, who’d just replaced Randy Bachman as lead player in the Guess Who. Troiano favored active electronics, which were provided by Neil Mosher, who would play a big role in the brand’s success through the 1970s. Weird shapes, neck-through construction, and active electronics – Rich’s holy trinity. B.C. Rich guitars were on their way!

The Seagull was heavily promoted and sold fairly well, but players didn’t like its pointy “feather” on the top, which kept jamming them in the chest. In ’75 or so, bassist Bill Bodine lodged this complaint about his Seagull Bass, so Bernie redesigned the Seagull, adding a second cutaway and carving off the offending point on top. This became the Bodine Bass for a short while, but then the guitar got the same makeover and the model became the Seagull II (or sometimes, Seagull Junior). In late ’76 or early ’77 the name game stopped and the model became known as the Eagle, as seen here.

Throughout this time B.C. Rich was really somewhere between a manufacturer and a custom shop. All B.C. Rich guitars could be – and were frequently – ordered with a range of options including custom electronics, vibratos, inlays, and finishes. As a result, there is an enormous range of guitars out there. You could get your guitar passive or tricked out with every conceivable mini-toggle for tapping, phase reversing, or activating other on-board active electronics. The 1981 Eagle shown here is one of these atypical guitars.

This is a swell guitar, like a stripped-down hot rod. It has the usual heelless neck-through-body construction. As you can see, it’s relatively plain in its appointments, with simple pearl dot inlays and no binding on the rosewood fingerboard. The body is a resonant mahogany. It’s pretty thin, so the guitar is not heavy but sounds great. It has great balance and is even comfortable to play sitting down. Whoever ordered this puppy didn’t care about mellow neck tones, just high powered crank out of the bridge. This is a Rich pickup, by the way. You’ll often see these described as having DiMarzios, but Rich usually made its own pickups. There may have been a few with DiMarzios, but those would be special cases, and usually any such description is just wrong.

The guitar shown here was equipped with a Rich-designed vibrato, one of their early designs – the locking vibrato was not widely available in 1981. Most B.C. Rich guitars from the 1970s and early ’80s were stop-tails. The color is interesting, too; it was called “Jump-at-Me Yellow,” a name given to it by a rock star visiting the factory one day.

But, like any good hot rod, the most impressive elements are “under the hood.” While it only has one hot pickup, the mini-toggle hooks up to an onboard preamp. Throw that sucker, and the output doubles. If you’re running at any volume at all, this turns into a nice distortion! The controls are a volume control for passive mode and a volume control for the preamp, so you can control the differential. There’s also a master Tone control that works in passive or active mode.

This particular Eagle has a six-in-line headstock. Previous guitars all had asymmetrical three-and-three heads. In 1981 – the year this guitar debuted, B.C. Rich introduced this design as an alternative.

B.C. Rich guitars aren’t especially rare. This one has a serial number of 85376, and Rich numbers were sequential, not date coded. Once they passed 1,000 in a year, the numbers started getting ahead of the year.

By 1982, the taste for switches and onboard preamps began to wane, and the line began to shift in a more conventional passive direction. This guitar thus represents the apex of that first golden age of B.C. Rich guitars. It’s simple – and great. Great enough to make you cover your ears and wear a great big grin!

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This article originally appeared in VG‘s June 2008 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

This fascinating instrument from the shop of Manuel Ramírez ca. 1909 is unusual in that the complete history of the instrument is known to us, there having been only two previous owners.

According to family history, this guitar was ordered by the famous Catalan guitarist Miguel Llobet, who was a student of Francisco Tárrega (and teacher of Andrés Segovia), for a student named Elvira Mieres, of Buenos Aires. Elvira had become fascinated with the guitar and traveled to Europe to study with Llobet while he was in Paris. This instrument was Llobet’s wedding gift to her. Upon her death, the guitar passed to her son, who was not a guitarist, but who nonetheless preserved the instrument for the memories of his mother that it held. From him, it passed to the current owner.

The Manuel Ramirez catalog lists 48 models of guitars ranging in price from 10 to 1,000 pesetas, and while the original price of this instrument is not known, we can only speculate, as this guitar does not precisely conform to any of the listed models and specifications. It is made with a 632-millimeter scale and smaller body size – what is often referred to as a “ladies’ guitar.” In those days, the sizes of instruments was not written in stone, but it was expected that a musician would have an instrument made of the correct dimensions, which would facilitate their technique, rather than impede it. Smaller sizes did not necessarily imply a cheaper price, although the use of smaller sets of wood might have helped to keep costs lower, as in those days the ratio of materials costs to the final selling price was much higher than it is today, and suppliers generally charge less for sets of wood that are smaller.

Aside from the extensive mother of pearl inlay, several other features suggest that this was an expensive deluxe instrument. The sides and back are made of Brazilian rosewood, and in those days, any rosewood was a very expensive choice of materials used only on the most expensive instruments. The fingerboard is made of ebony – again, the most expensive choice of wood. The instrument was fitted from the beginning with machine heads, and although this original set by today’s standards would not be considered expensive, it was very expensive in those days, as these were imported into Spain at great cost from Germany, England, and America. The Ramírez catalog lists machines as an option for all the guitars, which are priced with wooden pegs as standard.

Internally, the top is fully barred with seven fan struts, and the soundboard itself is made of premium German spruce of medium grain, a very high-quality cut of wood. The instrument is also fully varnished, including the top. In the Ramírez catalog, the lesser-priced guitars do not include varnish on the soundboard. The internal linings are made of carefully formed individual Spanish cedar glue blocks for the top, and a beautiful kerfed lining for the back. Kerfed linings were the most expensive type in those days, as they were labor intensive, hence only the more expensive instruments were fitted with them. Cheaper guitars would be fitted with solid bent linings, often bent from green (or wet) wood to facilitate installation.

This instrument was probably made between 1905 and 1909, when the Ramírez shop was located at Arlaban 10. During this period, Antonio Emilio Pascual Viudes was working in the shop, along with Domingo Esteso, Santos Hernandez, and perhaps Modesto Borreguero, who would have been a teenager at that time. This guitar was primarily built by Santos Hernandez, several distinct features suggesting this; the accuracy of the head details and machine installation, the careful purfling work, the skill of the pearl inlay and setting (I’ve seen several other Manuel Ramírez guitars with similar pearl work, all done by Santos, who seems to have been the in-house pearl specialist), and the fact that the neck is made up of two longitudinal pieces of cedar. It seems that making fingerboards (or neck) of more than one piece is a Santos trademark. The interior kerfed linings are identical to those installed in the 1912 Ram&#237rez owned by Segovia now in the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York, as are the brace profiles and fan-strutting treatment.

Where the instrument shows the hand of Domingo Esteso is in the neck carving, especially around the neck-heel joint, where the neck was aggressively carved, leaving a slightly asymmetrical heel joint visible in the photo. The transition of the neck to the head is also more typical of Esteso’s work, being less crisp and somewhat asymmetrical. The bridge, while eccentric by today’s standards, also may have been made by Esteso, as it is not as delicate at the edges, nor as carefully formed as typical Santos bridges. But this is more difficult to determine, as Santos never used this style of bridge in his own instruments.

In 1976, the instrument was restored by Roque Guagliardi, of Buenos Aires, who repaired a top crack and, according to the repair label he inserted, refinished the guitar. However, the varnish and ground is totally consistent with original Manuel Ramírez instruments of the period, so at worst he only padded over the repaired areas very lightly, without removing any of the original varnish. Perhaps the owners ignorantly had asked for it to be refinished, but Guagliardi wisely did not, though perhaps they were charged for the work. Who knows? Clearly, the instrument retains its original ground and French polish, and consequently shows none of the distortion or other problems a heavily-thinned refinished instrument exhibits. The action setup is as it left the shop of Ramírez – still in perfect playing condition. It’s the intention of the current owner to make the instrument available to fine players for recordings, a wonderful and remarkably generous offer on the part of an enlightened owner who understands what these instruments intended use.

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Richard Bruné began making guitars in 1966 and is a former professional flamenco guitarist. He has written for the Guild of American Luthiers and other organizations and lectured at guitar festivals and museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He collects classical and flamenco guitars. He was recently featured on the PBS documentary, “Los Romeros: The Royal Family of the Guitar,” and his new book, The Guitar of Andrés Segovia: Hermann Hauser 1937, was recently published by Dynamic, of Italy. You can write to him at 800 Greenwood Street, Evanston, IL 60201, or visit rebrune.com.

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This article originally appeared in VG‘s February 2008 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

The Martin D-28 was first issued in 1931. And all dreadnought Martins made from 1931 through ’33 featured a 12-fret (a reference to the point at which the neck meets the body) slotted-head neck and extended-length body, rather than the more familiar squared upper bout and shorter body of modern-style dreadnoughts. Martin’s first 14-fret-neck model was the OM-28 issued in ’29. By ’32, 14-fret necks were issued on the 0- and 00-size style 17 and by ’34 the 14-fret neck became standard on most steel-string Martin guitars with the exception of styles 21 upward in the 0 and 00 sizes.

Unlike Gibson’s approach, which was simply to keep the same body style and shape, but move the bridge position when shifting from 12-fret to 14-fret necks, Martin approached the issue by keeping the bridge in essentially the same position, but shortening the upper bout to accommodate a 14-fret neck. Therefore, 12-fret Martin guitars have a longer body and larger air chamber than equivalent 14-fret models. This results in a somewhat different sound. In the opinion of many, 12-fret extended-body Martins have a smoother, mellower sound with better balance and more sustain than 14-fret models.

Twelve-fret Martin D-28s are extremely scarce. Company records indicate a total production of one in 1931, four in ’32, and 12 in ’33. Records also show the D-2, which has essentially the same specs as the 12-fret D-28, with four made in 1931, two in ’32, none in ’33, and one in ’34. Four 12-fret D-28s were made in 1934, along with 65 14-frets.

Although Martin serial number records do not indicate this guitar has custom features, it is indeed an unusual custom-order instrument. Not only is it a 12-fret instrument issued at a transitional time (the 14-fret model had already been issued), but it features a solid (rather than slotted) peghead, the typical 17/8″ nut width seen on 12-fret slot head guitars, and style 45 neck ornamentation with triple-bound peghead, single-bound fingerboard, vertical C.F. Martin peghead logo inlay, and the typical style 45 snowflake fingerboard inlays. The body is the same as a 1933 12-fret D-28 with the extended-length Adirondack spruce top with scalloped bracing and herringbone trim, Brazilian rosewood back and sides, typical style 28 “zipper” back stripe and ivroid body binding. The open-back Grover tuners are the earliest Grover design for a solid peghead, and are gold-plated, rather than nickel-plated, as was typical on style 28 Martins.

As is typical of 12-fret pre-World War II Martin dreadnoughts, this is a fantastic-sounding instrument with great power, balance, and sustain, but a less percussive sound than the 14-fret dreadnoughts. It’s about as good as any flat-top. And while some players might prefer a narrower neck, this one is quite comfortable.

The history of this instrument has been traced to circa 1940, when it was bought used by the father of the people who brought it to Gruhn Guitars. It looked the same in their very early family photos as it does today. Although Martin’s records make no indication it was a custom order, they do indicate the serial number was entered in their records March 8, 1934, and that this was the only D-28 in the work order batch. There is no evidence that the neck or the ornamentation is anything but original. Had it been sent back to the factory to have style 45 neck ornamentation added (which the factory did offer to some performers such as Gene Autry, who had two 12-fret slothead guitars, a 0-42 and a 00-42, converted with more fancy neck ornamentation and his name on the fingerboard) the work would have been done to whatever specifications were available at the time, including modern fret wire after late ’34. Since this guitar has the earliest Grover tuners and bar frets, which were discontinued in late ’34, it almost certainly left the factory in its present configuration rather than having been altered at a later date.

This is an exceedingly rare instrument. Martin’s records show a notation of only one earlier 12-fret D-28, dated February 19, 1934, with style 45 neck trim, solid peghead, gold-plated tuners, and sunburst-finish top. Martin historian, the late Mike Longworth, apparently saw this guitar during his tenure, but we have been unable to trace its whereabouts.

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This article originally appeared in VG‘s Jul. ’05 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.