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BC Rich Bich 10 String Black

The Aware Guitar Player
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New Price: $799
One Sentence Summary: “The BC Rich Bich: Not the 10 String You Were Expecting”

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The BC Rich Bich 10 string is BC Rich’s Korean import version of their custom shop 10 strings. When I bought this guitar, I was attracted to the body style and the sound, I knew it was a rare optioned guitar. The guitar was an instant buy. If I didn’t buy it in the music store at that moment, the other three guys vying for it behind me would have. Unfortunately, I’d come to find that this guitar wasn’t everything I thought based on first experience.
The special options that came on this guitar were the extra 4 strings plus tuners, Neckthrough maple, ebony fretboard, Rockfield Mafia pickups (Korean made G & B), and M.O.P diamond inlays. Even though I got this guitar at about half off because someone chipped it after I bought it, I was surprised by how much more you get with a brand new Mockingbird ST for $100 less. I felt repulsed as a Bich lover that you get charged more for buying a 10 string with cheaper parts. During the year the two guitars were made, all the specs were the same except, for the Mockingbird’s Korean made Floyd Rose Original, Grover Imperial tuners, Quilted Maple veneer, and ST electronics. If you consider that a brand new Floyd Rose Special (closest tremolo to compare) costs about $99 retail and $90 retail for the Grover tuners. the Bich overall has less name-brand hardware that doesn’t add up to being more expensive as a lot of the parts used are cheap Korean mass produced parts. That means you’re getting charged more for the Bich and 10 string style and getting shortchanged with cheap tuners and lack of options. Of course, the Perfect 10 String Bich is a much more fairly priced with its ST electronics, neck binding, and cloud inlays, but the regular 10 string Bich, which was going for the same price new, had lacked all these options.

 

Neck Feel:

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Fact is 10 strings are made for people with bigger hands or long fingers. The width of the last fret was 58mm and the neck was around 0.900” depth at the twelfth fret. The neck also had a bit of shoulder on it as it was a “C” shape. Even when it was set as six string, the neck was too large to feel comfortable to me. In comparison, it felt much wider but thinner than my 80’s NJ Warlock, also wider and thicker towards the twelfth to the heel than my Mockingbird ST. Compared to my NJ Classic Bich, the neck on the 10string had wider shoulders on the neck, but less square at the neck joint area. The neckthrough joint on this guitar was very comfortable and form fitted with your hand, but because of how thick the neck got at the 24th fret it was difficult to hit it on the low E string.

Fretwork:

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First off, this guitar suffered from major issues. The neck on the neck through was not cut on the proper angle and made it impossible for low action, something I hadn’t noticed when I bought it. I had lowered the quad 10 string bridge and saddles down all they could go, but since the bridge was too bulky on the bottom, it had stopped around 6mm string action off the fretboard and couldn’t adjust any lower. The action was high all over the fretboard, making it problematic to be able to do complex licks on it without difficulty. The saddles of the quad bridge also rattled after being lowered. To fix this issue the bridge would have to have been recessed, meaning a cavity would have to have been cut into the body using a router and the post holes drilled deeper. I was warned by local luthiers that there could be more chip outs in the guitar in doing this job because of the cheap finish and it would be $200 to do the job. I had a trade pending on the guitar so that was not an option for me.
As far as the frets, they were advertised as jumbos, but looked and felt quite wider than regular jumbos on other BC Rich guitars. You could feel the frets on the side of the neck occasionally, but not that bothersome, and the frets felt a bit bulky especially when sliding.
Two hand tapping was decent on a clean channel – not bad but not great. Legatos and trills suffered because of the unfixable high action. When testing, bending the guitar would fret out around the 12th to 17th fret at around a step and a half on the higher three strings. The high E and B strings buzzed, when set up as a six string, from the 12th to 15th frets.

Sound:

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The Rockfield Mafias produced a beautiful tone full of depth when combined with the 10 string. The guitar could easily be used to do ballads as well as straight Rock to Heavy Metal. The pickups seem to do the best, sustain, volume, and harmonic wise when adjusted close to the strings. With these pickups, I’ve noticed that when you adjust them closer they grow louder, have more sustain, and harmonics sound fuller. The 10 string aspect add a certain attack when you do full chords on clean, but when set to distortion, the more distortion you put on, the harder it is to tell by sound that it’s a 10 string. The extra 4 strings seem to meld in with their counter parts under heavy distortion.

Finish:

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The guitar had a majorly glossy finish that showed through every fingerprint, scratch, and dent. The neck was a type of glossy that slowed down your hand when sliding. Not to mention that the finish was weak and prone to damage easy. The black finish and chrome hardware are very standard Heavy Metal colors, especially for BC Rich, but the glossy black finish helps show off that it’s a 10 string which is something I liked.

Options:

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Unfortunately, this guitar’s stock tuners weren’t worth the bottle cap you could throw at them, which is terrible for a guitar that has tuners on both sides. It would go horribly out of tune on all strings after an hour of play. The extra strings commonly dropped a step to half a step when playing within ten minutes. To replace all the tuners would be expensive or a big project, mostly because of the cost – an extra $120 for decent tuners plus Luthier fees if you’re going use one. You would have to buy two sets of tuners (one 3 on each side and one 6 in line for the body), but have two tuners left over.

In Conclusion:
Guitar Level: Mid-level.
Best Fit: Home Player/Show-off guitar.
Best for Rhythm or Lead: With its quality issues lead playing would be harder than doing rhythm on this guitar.
Has Value for studio use: Yes, if you can play through the action and keep it in tune. The 10 string was made to take out the muddiness of the E and A string in a twelve string under distortion. It was made with sound in mind.

Worth the Price?

If you were to pay $799 , maybe no. I paid about $400 because of the damage it took, but I soon found out the quality on this guitar does not run high and because it was an instant buy I wasn’t able to do the checks I usually do. After a while I wasn’t as pleased with it and traded it to get my Gibson SG. But, if I paid the full amount, I would be demanding a replacement or refund for full amount. $800 could have gotten you other guitars which don’t have as many quality issues. There’s also the idea maybe – that maybe – I was the unlucky one. That the one Bich I bought was the genetic flaw of the bunch of the large amount of guitars birthed out of Korea and there are more of the same guitar that don’t have these issues, or cynically, maybe not. Be warned though; there are genetically flawed guitars running wild and the issues found on mine might be a common issue with this model

Washburn Parallaxe PXS10FRDLX

The Aware Guitar Player
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New Price: $899
One Sentence Summary: The Metal Guitar to Keep an Eye on.

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The Parallaxe series is Washburn’s current attempt to shred their way back into the Metal market since their hayday in the 80’s. Competition is stiff, as the Prarallaxe series goes belly-to-belly with current Metal giants like Jackson, Schecter, Ibanez, ESP LTD, Dean, and BC Rich… God, they’re walking into the fray aren’t they? How does this series differentiate from the competition? Why should you go and buy another Super-strat Style guitar when there are then thousand out there? I’ll tell you why Rock Gods or Goddesses.
The Parallaxe series simply boasts options no other brand has at a comparative price range, and out-plays even some USA made guitars. I’m won’t say “At a fraction of the cost” because that sounds diminutive. When I say it out plays some USA guitars I’ve played as far as tone AND playability I’m very serious.
Washburn simply refers to this guitar as “The guitar without need of after market modifications,” which if you’re going to throw $900 into a guitar, it makes a great difference. The options that come on the PXS10FRDLX are an Original Floyd Rose(Korean), Grover 18:1 Locking Tuners, Seymour Duncan Jazz/Distortion (a combination that isn’t found on any other production guitars from other brands), Stephen’s Extended Cutaway (makes a BIG difference on the higher frets), individual series/parallel coil taps, and a 37mm brass block with spring silencers. All options you can’t find on any series of guitar out there.
Let me put it this way, with $900 you can rent a monster truck for a week. Let that set in the next time you want to buy a guitar. If I had to battle a guitar versus a monster truck I’d want the guitar that comes with all the options, and I won’t have to spend the extra two hundred dollars to put the features I would want on the guitar myself.
As positive about this guitar I am about this guitar, I am not bias. I will tell you the true ins and outs on this guitar.

Neck Feel:

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First off, the neck is directly comparable to the Ibanez Wizard II profile. It has the same neck thickness and fretboard width, difference being, the neck shape on this guitar is more of a thin “C”. If you’re used to rocking an RG, though, switching to a PXS10 is an easy convergence. I can’t say that about the whole line just right now – just this guitar.
The Stephen’s Cutaway makes a big difference on upper fret access. This neck joint is easily superior to other neck joints such as Ibanez’s bolt in, neck through, The Stephen’s Cutaway also fixes the problem most set neck pose, such as on most Les Paul copies, which have quite a bit of bulk blocking your ease on hitting the higher frets on the low E string. Stephen’s Cutaway eliminates big-bulky neck joints when playing. The joint is in an extended crecent shape, making it easier to a lot easier to hit low E number 24. I can actually reach the middle of the neck pickup with my third finger the joint is so easy. Now try that with your guitar and see how that goes. Why is that signifigant? Because I can hit the 24th fret with ease and have extra room to spare, that means less struggle to play more complex licks higher up. The more ease you have with playing the better you play.

Fretwork:

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The guitar is made in Indonesia, but don’t let that dissuade you from it. The Parallaxe is not like other cost-cutting beginner to mid range guitars which have fret and quality issues that usually get made in that country. The fretwork on this guitar has beat out most Korean guitars I’ve played. It has out played and has less issues than my MIJ BC Rich NJ Warlock, and my MIJ Charvel So Cal. The frets on this guitar are polished to reflection and perfect for sweeps, legatos, trills, two hand tapping, and scales. Because the size of the frets though, my fingers do feel like I’m fighting the frets to slide up and on the G, B, and high E strings. I believe it’s because of the tall hight of the frets combined with the wide width. If you want a suggestion on a guitar to reference to with frets I would suggest some of the Ibanez Iron Labels series with ebony fretboards. I feel the fretboards on those play similary to this guitar.
The two hand tapping on a clean channel on this guitar had very high volume, higher volume than most of the guitars I own. This is honestly the easiest guitar that I’ve ever played as far as doing legatos and trills. The frets are nicely cut away from the edge so I barely feel them when sliding. I can bend a whole two steps quite effortlessly across the fret board without it fretting out even though I believe it’s a 12” radius, which is really good considering I’ve played several Gibsons (including one of my Gibson SGs) fret out after a step bend at certain parts of the fret board.

Sound:

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This guitar is loaded with a Seymour Duncan Jazz/ Distortion combo for a fitting Heavy Metal, Melodic Metal, Rock, Progressive, you name it. It is a very versatile set especially when both can be coil tapped. The Duncan Jazz was designed tonally to be more articulate than other Duncan pickups under high gain, which it accomplishes in this guitar. The tone is very warm and clean, but a lot clearer than other Duncans I’ve played and it’s also has a little less output, especially compared to it’s bridge counterpart. The Duncan Distortion is a loud and aggressive monster! I would not suggest it for combos because the thing has so much high end snap and output it tends to make the speakers crackle when on the clean channel. Under High gain the Duncan Distortion is very versatile pickup, you can go from playing Iron Maiden, to Meshuggah, to Muse (if you like) and this pickup just might sound better than the original track. Distorted, this pickup has a lot of bite and aggression perfect for wild hallowing solos. Clean, the Duncan Distortion has a lot of high output articulate snap. The coil taps Don’t simulate true single coil tone that well. They lighten the sound of the pickups and lower the output, which I can see one would need in recording situations where e the high output of the Distortion pickup is optimal. They sound the closest to single coils when in the middle position and bridge in bright clean mode on your amp. The series/parallel coil taps don’t whine as much under high gain as I’ve experienced with other regular coil taps, and that’s a plus.

Finish:

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The guitar has a glossy finish on the body and neck, but not so much on the neck where it feels cheap and your hand gets stuck trying to slide up and down the neck. It’s a light amount of gloss. The finish feels solid even though it’s has gotten a few tiny dents already from constantly getting moved around. I’ve slammed it bad by accident a couple of times and it hasn’t cracked or chipped on me. The guitar is set up with black chrome hardware, which on the Floyd Rose is already starting to wear away from daily use. I wouldn’t expect it to stay black unless it’s going to be a case queen.
One word of warning in case you’re buying off the internet with a stock photo. The color and the degree of flame varies on this guitar: In most pictures, you’ll see a photo of this Parallaxe with a bright red finish, but the one I bought had more of a maroon/red burst finish and one side of the veneer had a lower level of flame than the other side. One side looks like an AAA flame while the other has an A flame and in certain angles matches the other side.

Options:

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I’ll start with the Buzz Feiten Tuning System in this section. If you don’t know what the Buzz Feiten is, basically it’s the way the guitar comes set up for intonation purposes.
First, the nut is brought closer to the first fret to help with sharp notes and the bridge saddles are set up in a way to help with accurate intonation throughout the fretboard. Unfortunately, when I got this from the factory, they didn’t set up the tuning system right. The guitar came in severely flat, especially towards the first frets. I had to set it up properly myself, kind of mooting the point of having it to begin with.
Next, the Korean Floyd Rose Original. The Floyd Rose put on this Parallaxe is sometimes referred to as a Floyd Rose 1000 Series, which is exactly the same as the German Floyd Rose and made from the same hardened steel components. The bridge is of very high quality. If I didn’t tell you it was Korean you wouldn’t feel the difference between this and the German one. The saddles aren’t sharp on your hands. They feel nice and rounded out with its contours. When it comes to vibrotos and whammying it can take a lot of abuse and still hit point zero afterwards. When I use the whammy bar I usually use it a lot and in song that require a lot of use from it, like Altitudes from Jason Becker.
Finally, I’ll cover the brass block and direct mount pickups. Both options are known as tone enhancements. I would say the biggest difference the brass block makes is sustain. The sustain on this guitar is actually longer than on my neckthrough guitars such as my BC Rich MockingBird ST and Korean 10 String Bich. That’s something that’s real important for things like sustain note bending, dive bombs, and having the correct sustain for any song or solo you want to play. Because it’s always a pain when you’re trying to do a song correctly and your notes keep dying out too soon. As for the direct mount pickups, I’m not sure how much of a difference that really makes with tone. That could possibly be another element that helps this guitar sustain for so long though, because having the pickups mounted to the body allows them to pickup on more resonance from the wood when playing. I feel that both options are there to help improve sustain, but are also small parts of the whole tone.

In Conclusion:
Guitar Level: Pro
Best Fit: Live/Studio/Workhorse guitar.
Best for Rhythm or Lead: Being Floyd Rose equipped, this guitar leans more toward being lead and is made more specifically towards lead playing.
Has Value for studio use: Most definitively. If you’re looking to change up your sound or put more depth into your recordings, this guitar’s tone packs a punch in its pouch and it’s also a guitar that can work with you and your tonal needs in the studio.

Worth the Price?

When I was out searching for a new guitar this one stood because it offered the stuff that simply wasn’t on other guitars for the same price, the small little upgrades that were probably really cheap to put on for Washburn. Even though these parts are probably cheap for manufacturers, it shows a lot of care put into this series and the player having a great guitar. These parts are easy for other companies to put on their guitars for around the same price range, but they choose not to because they expect you to buy their name basically and love the guitar because “I bought an such-n-such and all such-n-suchs are great because it’s a such-n-such.” And these companies expect you to scream these words to the hills so everyone buys one so they can make the extra $20 per guitar. The PXS10FRDLX provided to be a better guitar than what I’ve seen out there for the same amount of money.