Opinion wanted on this bass

[Craigmartini]

I have an 80's BC Rich neck through body Mockingbird. It has 2 reversed P-pickups that are close together just like that (only reversed mount). That bass sounds GREAT! Huge tone. I use it to record only though. I hate playing it live cause it neck dives so horribly. But as far as the sound goes......man it rocks!

That bass looks cool!

Craig

 

[jgsbass]

1- The guitards on the other boards probably thought this was a mandolin: they have no sense of scale, anyway
2- There are bad places to put a pickup: if the pickup is underneath the node of a harmonic, it will sound bad. I had Roger Sadowsky put a Bartolini humbucker into a jazz bass in an unorthodox position ( for the time- mid 80's) and he and an assistant (jay Black?) kept playing harmonics and looked at where the rout for the pickup would be and they came to the conclusion that the harmonic wouldn't get in the way. I also had a Guild B302 fretless that would lose the harmonic when the neck pickup was on. In other words with the bridge pickup on, hit the 2nd harmonic on the G string to give you a D. Harmonic rings. Switch on the other pickup and it disappears. Solo the bridge pickup, its still there. Same darn thing happens on Fender Telecasters
3- As Bernie Rico built these with a larger data base of info ( 20 years of building guitars had enabled the Japanese to catch up to and even surpass Amarican builds) I'm pretty sure that he prototyped and tested the position of those pickups and it wasn't just an aesthetic guess.

 

[Tommy Tourbus]

well, i just put $500 down on it so...done deal

 

[D.A.R.K.]

wise decision

 

[Tommy Tourbus]

3- As Bernie Rico built these with a larger data base of info ( 20 years of building guitars had enabled the Japanese to catch up to and even surpass Amarican builds) I'm pretty sure that he prototyped and tested the position of those pickups and it wasn't just an aesthetic guess.

this is actually a new one. Rico died a few years back and had no input on this one. The pickup placement on it is different than the vintage ones that he built and had input on (see the pic of the white one in this thread. That one's a vintage).

The guys dissing the pickup placement on this new one were guys on the BC Rich guitar forum, and were dissing it for not being vintage correct, and because as they are guitarists they also thought it was strange the neck pickup wasn't all the way up against the fretboard, and the bridge pickup wasn't all the way at the bridge (like a guitar). They didn't understand the bass sweet spot concept, and were clueless when I pointed it out to them. They didn't seem to realize lots of two pickup basses have both pickups in that area instead of being spread apart.

 

[millsbass5]

DO NOT PASS THIS UP!!!!!!!!

1.)Collectable
2.)Pup p/ment - KILLER Punch-definition galore!! Had a bass w/that pup placement.