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B.C. Rich Mockingbird ST Electric Guitar
I bought this a scratch and dent from MF. Got it for around 600 or 579 (can't remember now), which is over a hundred less than the same one without S/D.
Tone:
There are a lot of different tones that a person can find on this guitar. That's kind of what attracted me to it in the first place. But I usually can't hear everything a guitar has to offer right away, so I waited a bit to let my ear tune into the guitar before writing this.
There is a filter switch (5 position chicken beak knob) that seems to add bass. I know that as I adjust the knob further to my left, I get more bass and "punch". For playing metal, I usually keep this all the way to the left.
Both Rockfield p/u's have coil taps. I like this, since I sometimes like to mess around with strat-like tones. In particular I like to keep the neck p/u tapped for cleaner picking sounds ala Yng and Lynch. The bridge p/u has plenty of gain and I can get the metal stuff I need from it like palm muting and split harmonics. The clarity is good for both p/u's.
A phase switch changes the tone for both p/u's. I usually engage this when I have the coils tapped, so that I can get a better strat vibe. I like the sound of the chicken knob rolled to the right with both coils tapped and the phase switch engaged. Along with my wah, I get a nice funky vibe this way.
To sum up the tone evaluation, I would say that I can get all the basic, meat and potatoes metal sounds I need, along with some cool clean strat blues/funk tones.
Hardware:
The tuners on the headstock are of good quality. Of course, I don't use them much, since I lock the floyd. But they seem good. They certainly look cool.
The Original Floyd is really good. It stays in tune and the intonation is good across the neck. No issues with it. It's operation is transparent. Very smooth and reliable.
Neck and Body:
This is a neck through body guitar and I can actually tell the difference. The sustain is better and the sound is a little more clear than on the bolt-on's I have.
The body shape is comfortable. I have complete access to all the frets. No sharp edges that bother my picking arm.
The guitar is a bit neck heavy. Nothing really obnoxious, but I can feel the difference between this and my Jackson or Schecter. The neck itself feels really good. It's kind of on the round side. The scale is like a Gibson, so bending is a little easier. You can really feel this with lighter strings. At the moment I have it in Bb, so the effect is not as pronounced. Still, I like it. As I said before, no intonation issues, however my fingers are used to a longer scale.
Frets are perfect. No rough edges. Very smooth bending.
It's a good looking guitar. Kind of on the heavy side, but I like them heavy anyway. Finish is great. The two or three scratches/dings are no big deal to me. They'd be there eventually in any case.
I rate it a 9 out of 10. One point is deducted for the missing string.
*edit*
Played a show with this and it worked like a champ. Got a good comment about it being a "cool guitar" too.
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