B.C. Rich Mockingbird Body Art - 40 Lashes Reviews 4

This guitar was a close-out at Music 123 for $170 - much less that half retail price. I was looking for a less expensive guitar for my son to learn on and this one was much more bang for the buck than others I saw, and I liked the shape.

I was quite surprised by the quality of this guitar. The body is well made with the paint being very good and the fit of the bolt-on neck to be good also. I'm very impressed with the maple neck - Very fast. I do lots of woodworking so good quality must stand out in order to impress me. This one is made in China and shows surprisingly good quality control. The dual humbuckers sound good with the volume up or down when playing a clean sound or individual strings, but not very good if the volume is high with distortion or overdrive. Action is low and feels quite good but maybe a bit too low on the low E since it buzzes just a bit.

When I first got the guitar and plugged it in, it wouldn't play. After exhausting other possibilities, it came down to the electronics on the guitar. M123 wanted me to send it back but I knew it was probably just a switch or ground. I ended up replacing the switch and volume pot - Fixing it for around $20. It would have costed me more than $20 for my trouble to send it back anyway and then I wouldn't get another close out so that's why I decided to fix it. The pups seem to overdrive too easily at high volume making chords sound a bit drowned out.

Construction is very good with a silky finish all over - especially the neck. The neck is smooth with no imperfections on the surface. The frets are jumbo and nicely smoothed with no sharp edges to catch on fast moving fingers.

The box it was shipped in was inadequately packaged but it arrived in great shape nevertheless. After I got it working, it plays quite well. The front strap button needs to be installed farther forward on the guitar. Holding the neck up on the axe when trying to play is awkward and unnecessary. This should be a design change. The body shape is great for the lap session - The classic guitar position is all you need. Overall, it has/had flaws but these are small issues that I can fix. This is a nice guitar that plays well with a great look I like. Like most players who've had several guitars and have great expectations on the next one, I too want the most for the buck. And for what I paid, I am happy with this axe. Oh, my son has played it once. He'll get there.

Big D rated this unit 4 on 2004-11-26.

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