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Can someone school me on B.C. Rich Mocking Birds?

thedovewarlord

thedovewarlord

Dec 29, 2010
878
816
NY
#1
I'm a P guy through and through. I always loved Joe Perry's Mock, its mystique and angles and curves, but all of a sudden I'm drooling over those late 70's, early 80's Mocking Birds basses. Not so much the newer breed B.C Rich's that came around with the hair metal (solid colors and coffin cases haaaaa - those are cool but not what Im after).

I'm talking about the originals early era instruments with the simple "R" logo and multiple switches and dials like the lunar module.

When Im looking at images online, the horn on the treble side seems to vary, is this indication of counterfeit or were they all made from scratch and the luthier took artistic license and gave each some individual flare. So little info on such an iconic, and identifiable instrument.

Also curious why they seem to be rare? Are they great looking, but have functional flaws?

like I said, please school me. Great appreciated.
 
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#3
Horns vary. IIRC 1978 or 79 was the "shorthorn" period. Used to have a 78 lefty many years ago. Nice bass, didn't notice it neckdive though the birdseye maple body was probably not light. With the lunar module controls I just figured out I like having bridge pickup in parallel, neck in series, vol 10, tone 10, phase normal, varitone normal, preamp off.
 
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#4
FunkHead said:
They are great looking basses but they are prone to neck diving.
Click to expand...
Ahh, since you point that out, I can imagine that has something to do with the 24 frets maybe. Something I would keep in mind if/when I run across one.

pklima said:
Horns vary. IIRC 1978 or 79 was the "shorthorn" period. Used to have a 78 lefty many years ago. Nice bass, didn't notice it neckdive though the birdseye maple body was probably not light. With the lunar module controls I just figured out I like having bridge pickup in parallel, neck in series, vol 10, tone 10, phase normal, varitone normal, preamp off.
Click to expand...

Cool, so I get the idea, the shape evolved. Once I zero in a little further and see what controls what I may reach out for more info. Im a Precision bass guy, volume & tone basically all I got. Have no idea what phase, series, parallel do in terms of tone.

Simpler question, what does the bass sound like; characteristics or maybe an example in a recording or something?
 
#5
thedovewarlord said:
Have no idea what phase, series, parallel do in terms of tone.

Simpler question, what does the bass sound like; characteristics or maybe an example in a recording or something?
Click to expand...

Non-technical but IME:

Speaking generally, use of the phase switch is often described as kinda "hollowing" the sound - it seems most easily heard in the midrange.

Series is the pickups running one (usually bridge?) into the other (usually neck?).

Parallel can be thought of as both pups at the same time.

The latter two can often be made to pretty much sound like each other with different settings to do that.

IME, parallel seems to default to a little more volume and bottom.
 
#7
Series/parallel, in the case of the classic BC Rich wiring, is a separate switch for each pickup, controlling how the two coils of the pickup are wired with each other. Series - normal P-bass pickup wiring and sound. Parallel - less mids, more highs, lower output.

The neck pickup and bridge pickup are always wired in parallel with each other. So, this is different than the series/parallel switch on most basses that have one, which does what vvvmmm said above. There, parallel is normal, and series is more output/less treble.

So with the Mockingbird, I basically liked having the neck pickup doing its more or less P-bass sound, with a little sparkle from the bridge pickup in low-output parallel mode sprinkled in.
 
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#8
IMG_1999.jpeg
IMG_2004.jpeg
IMG_2003.jpeg
Three shapes depending on where and when built

El Monte
T.J. (Long horn)
Short horn
 
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#9
Lots of great info here! I had one years ago and sold it for rent $ or something equally foolish. I started looking for one a few years ago but they were too rich for my blood. I did, however, find a Fernandes, licensed by BC Rich, and it's a seriously dead on repro. Lots cheaper and yes, all the bells and whistles, neck through, back tilt on the neck, control scheme. Just pulled it out for a seasonal set-up and trying to choose which gig to grace with it. It's the one on the right, of course. I just rest my forearm on the bout to counteract neck dive. Like the longhorns, not a shorthorn fan.
White basses 2.jpg

The Bar Band Bassman
 
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#12
While BC's aren't my thing, I looked over the shoulder of a guy who made a 6 month search for one.

He found out that after the original BC days and the later passing of Bernard Rico, the builds, quality, and electronic setups have varied quite a bit in the intervening years, and of course the originals today can bring big prices.

So I'd suggest doing similar homework and leveraging the BC Club here on TB as mentioned above. Some of the later models can be very good all the way to basically copies in silhouette only, so do your due diligence.
 
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#13
vvvmmm said:
Non-technical but IME:
Speaking generally, use of the phase switch is often described as kinda "hollowing" the sound - it seems most easily heard in the midrange.....
Click to expand...
pklima said:
Series/parallel, in the case of the classic BC Rich wiring...
Click to expand...
Awesome! Thanks for the tip-sheets @vvvmmm @pklima (are you a fan of Petr Klima???)

Thanks for the great photos @Matt O & @bill81255 -- and what a great clip @5StringBlues -- all so coooool!!!

J Wilson said:
...So I'd suggest doing similar homework and leveraging the BC Club here on TB as mentioned above. Some of the later models can be very good all the way to basically copies in silhouette only, so do your due diligence.
Click to expand...
. Outstanding advice, though outta my range at the moment I am leaning towards the original (pricier ones).

Thanks for all the info! Keep 'em coming.
 
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#15
thedovewarlord said:
@Lesfunk can you please expand a little further on these 3 different shapes. Love to get a scoop on which is what and the subtleties between them. Thanks!
Click to expand...
The pics go in order to the list I wrote
El Monte (medium horn)
TJ (Tijuana) long horn
East L.A. shorty
I always assumed that the difference in shapes were indicative of the place they were built.
these were all hand carved one at a time
the guy to ask is a member here
@johnk_10
He designed the mockingbird
 
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#16
Disclaimer- I don't own one but I have come close. These basses were early promoters of DiMarzio bass pickups. Usually the P style. Even with all of their switches and controls, B.C. Rich basses were always passive, AFAIK.
Please correct me if you know this to be different. I remember seeing a fretless B.C. Rich bass with absolutely no markers on it at all. That would be some great ear training to play that one.
 
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#17
Lesfunk said:
The pics go in order to the list I wrote
El Monte (medium horn)
TJ (Tijuana) long horn
East L.A. shorty
I always assumed that the difference in shapes were indicative of the place they were built.
these were all hand carved one at a time
the guy to ask is a member here
@johnk_10
He designed the mockingbird
Click to expand...
Tremendous! I didn't know those were locations, Im so under-informed I thought those were some type of nickname.

@johnk_10 nice to see you are here on Talkbass. I hope this post finds you well. It would be greatly appreciated if you were able to help break-out the differences between all those late 70's and early 80's Mocking Birds. I'd like to let you know that your design has been thrilling me ever since I was a kid looking at photos of Joe Perry, the coolest player playing the coolest guitar, and all but Ive never been able to track down much info about the basses. Thank you.
 
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#19
Things you need to know:

-Mockingbirds are cool.

-TB's own John Kallas designed the thing.

-There are 3 cuts for the horn. From longest to shortest they are: Tiajuana cut, El Monte, Shorthorn.

-The easiest way to understand the controls is to think of the bass as passive basses first. You have your pickup selector, series/parallel for each pickup and a phase switch. The rotary selector is essentially various degrees of mid scoop/bass and treble boost caps. You lose a good amount of volume when you start moving the rotary selector clockwise and if you go out of phase, the active boost is there to compensate for the volume lost in those settings.
 
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#20
J Wilson said:
So I'd suggest doing similar homework and leveraging the BC Club here on TB as mentioned above. Some of the later models can be very good all the way to basically copies in silhouette only, so do your due diligence.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I have a purchased lightly used, what to the best of my knowledge is an earlier 2000's model (no one seems to know how to get an exact build date from the serial number system they used) that while nowhere similar electronically is in it's own right a very good quality instrument. Neck through, Gotoh-grade tuners, active, pretty wide tonal range, fitted hardcase. Out of 13 this is one of my top three go-to basses (Stingray and T-Bird being the other two), love the sound and it's a quality player. Got mine lightly used several years ago at a pretty low cost, way below what the classic versions go for.

Like a Thunderbird they're a bit of a stretch to the first three frets and they can be a bit neck heavy. Modded mine with a strap extender (which I've also done with my T-Birds) which solves both issues. Again like a Thunderbird or Ric they're not for everyone, however for me it's a great fit and bang-for-the-buck wise a good value.
20200225_220738.jpg 20200225_204514.jpg 20200225_204540.jpg
 
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