Thanks for the very honest review. FYI, when BC Rich designed the early models he had no idea he was designing iconic "Heavy metal guitars". He was a flamenco guitarist and made shapes he felt worked with the body. I think this might explain the pretty clouds. The 10 string was designed in response to hard rock players who would remove the top two strings of their 12 string electric guitars because they got too muddy under high gain.
If the sound is very samey between tone selections, it might help to turn off the maxed out distortion/gain? It would be nice to hear the 10 string configuration, opposed to a single E power chord which utilizes the conventional un-doubled E and A strings. It's a very unique and striking guitar - Would be nice to hear it played!
Well... If you take a look at some of the other videos on this guitar on youtube, you see that this is an incredible versatile guitar. One that is for me a candidate for "If you just could have one guitar, what will it be?" Just because it's a BC Rich, doesn't mean that you should only play it with your fuzz box on all the settings to show that it's sounds the same. Your fuzz box does that. It's not a vey good review of the guitar. From clean to full on metal, this guitar can do almost anything from Stairway to heaven till Riot act. One important thing to mention is that you can remove the four extra strings if you want and it becomes a six string. The bridge is set up that way. And also... look at the fingerboard clouds; it says: "I can do cloud too".
obornes This comment is exactly what I wanted to say! TERRIBLE review of the guitar, sounded like from the beginning you just hated it. You can't review a guitar this versatile with just an E power chord man! I own a few guitars with coil taps and phase switching, and the vari tone.... You need to explore the fretboard with the different tones to really give it some depth. I am about to buy one of these, and I will definitely post you a reply review, like you asked in your video :D
Ben, keep in mind that the 10 strings were made primarily for rhythm not for shredding - it's best to just take the extra 4 Strings off and, use just the six, if you're going to be using this B.C. Rich "Bitch" as your main Guitar for shredding, etctera.
this guitar is for rock and roll, whats not to get. Play anything on it really, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, UFO, Cream, AC DC, Lynard Skynard, ect. I use to play a 10 string bich in a classics cover band everything sounded great on it. The perfect ten doesn't have the full bich electronics package though.
You're correct; the Perfect 10 ended up being the last Korean import version of this layout and was pretty much a compromise regarding the electronics. The versions before the Perfect 10 (in natural and ebony finishes) were available with just the tone and volume knobs and pickup selectors and sold for about a hundred bucks less than this one. This one sold for about a couple of thousand bucks less than the Bich 10 Supremes that included the full electronics, though. Tremendous bargain for the build quality.
@@SGBassplayer Mine kept snapping the G string...Contacted Neal Moser about it since he designed the Bich and said he'd gotten lots of complaints about that and BCR at that time this guitar was being made they couldn't set it up right if their lives depended on it. At that time I didn't have the money to send it to Neal for the modifications to make it right. I sold it, ended up gettting a doulbe neck bich a few years later. I like the 12 string FAR better than the 10.
Dunno if you've gotten any advice on it by now but yes you can remove the octave strings and just play it as a normal 6 string. Joey Perry did that with his
@DarkZ41126 Sure I found stuff I liked; it's comfortable to play, great action despite the extra strings. It's interesting and cool, just didn't get what anyone would use it for. Sparked some interesting comments. Did you read the others?
FRY3 told me about a band from Oakland CA called High On Fire that features a custom 9 string guitar. I'm watching their UA-cam vids as soon as the crappy WiFi in this otherwise nice hotel loads them. Go thou and do like wise.
@ravner1976 Because I do video reviews and it was something different and interesting. Got some interesting responses. Did you read the one previous to yours?
In the early days we took the top strings off the guitar because nobody wanted "pretty sounding" barre chords. Dont crucify me. This was before 7 strings and dropped tunings. The rest of the strings helped round out your sound if you didnt have another guitar player to harmonize with. Once again. before effects became availabe to everyone and their brother.
FRY3 told me about Mr. Pike a while back, but I didn't know his guitar was made by FIRST ACT???!!!?!?!?!?!? The Walmart guitar brand? That's way more mind blowing than a couple extra strings!
This guy just doesn't seem to like this guitar. "I always thought of B.C. rich as a heavy metal guitar. Well these we're made even in the 80's so I can see why you would think that but this guitar doesn't follow trends. He always seems to think "There's too many switches, and it doesn't make a big difference." When your in a studio you can make this sound EXACTLY like what you want. Plus if you don't like the 10 strings, take the extra 4 off. Why bitch about it?
MoreThanGuitar I thought it was pretty good. None the less, what is your thought about this guitar? Does it play similar to a les paul, is it a heavy guitar (especially while standing?) And did you end up enjoying all the features or do you still see no use for them?
Nothing like a Paul. Weight is medium, solid chunk of wood, but not over heavy. Nicely made axe, but as you saw in the vid, I couldn't figure out a good use for it. Scroll down the other UA-cam comments. I got some references to dudes who use it exclusively and well.
First Act actually has a custom shop and a beginner series. They're the same company, but the quality of the guitars is on a completely different level.
MoreThanGuitar The cheapo audio built into most consumer camcorders is more than adequate for things like home movies and basic travel videos. If you're not playing music, but just talking - okay, sure. But for demonstrating a musical instrument, or amp, or style, or a piece you've composed (or covered) what's the point of having distant, tinny, echoic sound that most consumer camcorder built-in microphones are going to yield? Nobody out there can even come close to appreciating the sound. It makes me wince to hear someone who clearly has musical talent displaying a video where it sounds like it was recorded in a tunnel. Find out the specs on the camcorder's audio. If it is at least 16 bit and has a sampling rate of at least 44.1kHz, you can plug in a decent condenser mic on a cable (not more than maybe eight feet long since it isn't balanced and will pick up induced noise). If you can afford a stereo microphone, it will sound even better because you'll have room presence and the listener will have more of a feel of being in the room with you. If $58 is an affordable solution to getting good music onto your camcorder, I have used the Audio-Technica PRO24CM on a DSLR with an 1/8" input with decent success. Of course you still want to get as close as you can, so put the camcorder on its widest lens setting and put the tripod within six feet of yourself or closer if you can. Otherwise, put the microphone on a stand of its own and use a short extension cable if necessary. If you own a mixer, there is a possibility of running one of the line outs to the camcorder's audio jack. Your camera would have to be able to switch its input from mic-level to line-level. If the camcorder's audio specs are not up to recording music (say 12-bit or 32kHz) then use one of those pocket stereo recorders that does have better specs. Then if you have a video editing application, you can clap your hands periodically while you're shooting (and edit that out later) and sync the visual waveform on the computer monitor with the frame of your hands coming together (the old poor-man's clapboard). And you can also try to line up the waveforms of the sound from the external recorder with the "reference track" the camera recorded (there is software available that will do that automatically). But that's about all most camera-bound audio is good for - syncing the tracks from external recorders.
That'll work. I should have mentioned - mic the cab. That's really what is going to best portray the sound of your vid. But I still shudder at talking to a crappy camcorder mic across the room. So unless the camcorder is no more than say 4-5 feet away, plug a reasonable directional mic (hypercardoid or even a short shotgun) into the camcorder and put it on a stand closer to you than the camera tripod. IMO it still sounds terrible for you to be talking to a built-in camera mic from across the room. These were really designed for in-your-face interview style shots. For most consumer camcorders you might need 1/4" to 1/8" adapter, depending on your choice mic. But keep in mind what I said about the camcorder NOT supporting balanced microphone inputs (unless you're using a killer prosumer camera with XLR ins and manual gain controls) - so your cable distance shouldn't be more than a few feet (maybe six feet tops). Plus if the camcorder has a single stereo external microphone input, you probably cannot use both an external microphone and the built-in mic at the same time. Plugging in an external mic most likely will defeat the internal mic. I still think the best setup is to run whatever mics you use into your mixer and run the outputs to the camera. If the camera doesn't support line level inputs, then you'll need to pad your mixer outputs somehow. Some mixers can be switched to output mic level signals (typically portable field mixers) or you can use inline pads. Also you'll need to get the two outputs converted into an 1/8" TRS (stereo) cable for the camera. Of course if you own any external stereo recorder (like a Xoom) - use it instead of the camera audio. Even if it doesn't sync perfectly, unless your video goes more than a few minutes or you utilize an extreme closeup of your face or hands on the guitar, no one will probably notice. The reality is most camera audio really sucks, no matter how you slice it. But at least remedy the worst problem of replacing the fifty-cent on-board camera mic that is across the room with a decent dedicated dynamic mic placed right in front of (touching) your cab for the guitar sound. Get a used Shure SM57 on eBay maybe. Then find a video on UA-cam on miking guitar cabs - it's no big deal. Don't sell your sound short. Cheers
My BC Rich plays awesome, every les paul plays like a 2x4. Maybe it's the poor quality recording, most early thrash/speed metal had this problem, and maybe the heroin may have played a role. Fender's do play nice.
Review?? Get a dictionary and check the word out. You said this was a review of a ten-string guitar. You played a two-string power chord only then through an effect, so eight strings were unused, those especially being the doubled ( two 'octave' strings+ two doubled) strings as you call them ( the whole point of a ten-string???) and the pickups weren't used 'clean'!! What is the point? All you actually did was gripe about what it possibly is for, played two strings, without mentioning their make and tell people who made the pickups! You could've used any BC Rich 6 string and got pretty much the same response... NOT A REVIEW OF A TEN STRING GUITAR. Did Gibson show their twin-neck by showing a two-string power chord on the 6 string neck? Awful 'review'!!
Thanks for the very honest review.
FYI, when BC Rich designed the early models he had no idea he was designing iconic "Heavy metal guitars". He was a flamenco guitarist and made shapes he felt worked with the body. I think this might explain the pretty clouds.
The 10 string was designed in response to hard rock players who would remove the top two strings of their 12 string electric guitars because they got too muddy under high gain.
Thank you, I like somebody that knows what they're talking about.
If the sound is very samey between tone selections, it might help to turn off the maxed out distortion/gain? It would be nice to hear the 10 string configuration, opposed to a single E power chord which utilizes the conventional un-doubled E and A strings. It's a very unique and striking guitar - Would be nice to hear it played!
Well... If you take a look at some of the other videos on this guitar on youtube,
you see that this is an incredible versatile guitar. One that is for me a candidate for "If you just could have one guitar, what will it be?"
Just because it's a BC Rich, doesn't mean that you should only play it with your fuzz box
on all the settings to show that it's sounds the same. Your fuzz box does that. It's not a vey good review of the guitar. From clean to full on metal, this guitar can do almost anything from Stairway to heaven till Riot act. One important thing to mention is that you can remove the four extra strings if you want and it becomes a six string. The bridge is set up that way. And also... look at the fingerboard clouds; it says: "I can do cloud too".
obornes This comment is exactly what I wanted to say! TERRIBLE review of the guitar, sounded like from the beginning you just hated it. You can't review a guitar this versatile with just an E power chord man! I own a few guitars with coil taps and phase switching, and the vari tone.... You need to explore the fretboard with the different tones to really give it some depth. I am about to buy one of these, and I will definitely post you a reply review, like you asked in your video :D
Ben, keep in mind that the 10 strings were made primarily for rhythm not for shredding - it's best to just take the extra 4 Strings off and, use just the six, if you're going to be using this B.C. Rich "Bitch" as your main Guitar for shredding, etctera.
0:20 - its for playing
ik its been 10 years, but the guitarist for the death metal duo "Bolzer" uses one of these.
@fastersamurai Arrigato, sensei! I confess, the clouds puzzled me. Thank you for the insight!
this guitar is for rock and roll, whats not to get. Play anything on it really, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, UFO, Cream, AC DC, Lynard Skynard, ect. I use to play a 10 string bich in a classics cover band everything sounded great on it. The perfect ten doesn't have the full bich electronics package though.
You're correct; the Perfect 10 ended up being the last Korean import version of this layout and was pretty much a compromise regarding the electronics. The versions before the Perfect 10 (in natural and ebony finishes) were available with just the tone and volume knobs and pickup selectors and sold for about a hundred bucks less than this one. This one sold for about a couple of thousand bucks less than the Bich 10 Supremes that included the full electronics, though. Tremendous bargain for the build quality.
@@SGBassplayer Mine kept snapping the G string...Contacted Neal Moser about it since he designed the Bich and said he'd gotten lots of complaints about that and BCR at that time this guitar was being made they couldn't set it up right if their lives depended on it. At that time I didn't have the money to send it to Neal for the modifications to make it right. I sold it, ended up gettting a doulbe neck bich a few years later. I like the 12 string FAR better than the 10.
it's a coil-splitter, not a coil tap
nice review
I'd probably buy one of these and leave out the extra D so I've only got my GBE chorused. Would be great for playing High on Fire.
Can you remove the additional strings and just put standard 6 strings on?
Dunno if you've gotten any advice on it by now but yes you can remove the octave strings and just play it as a normal 6 string. Joey Perry did that with his
What would be the point?
Nice review and great guitar.Thanks for all
@DarkZ41126 Sure I found stuff I liked; it's comfortable to play, great action despite the extra strings. It's interesting and cool, just didn't get what anyone would use it for. Sparked some interesting comments. Did you read the others?
FRY3 told me about a band from Oakland CA called High On Fire that features a custom 9 string guitar. I'm watching their UA-cam vids as soon as the crappy WiFi in this otherwise nice hotel loads them. Go thou and do like wise.
If you don't like anything about it what the hell did you buy it for?
This video
Heavy distortion doesn’t let the 10 strings make sense. You want clean through classic rock gain.
@ravner1976 Because I do video reviews and it was something different and interesting. Got some interesting responses. Did you read the one previous to yours?
Thanks! Got to find a shop that will loan me some so I can make some new.
In the early days we took the top strings off the guitar because nobody wanted "pretty sounding" barre chords. Dont crucify me. This was before 7 strings and dropped tunings.
The rest of the strings helped round out your sound if you didnt have another guitar player to harmonize with. Once again. before effects became availabe to everyone and their brother.
FRY3 told me about Mr. Pike a while back, but I didn't know his guitar was made by FIRST ACT???!!!?!?!?!?!? The Walmart guitar brand? That's way more mind blowing than a couple extra strings!
First act has been around a lot longer than Wal-Mart, great for what they are. However early models go for big money, not sure why ( rare or awesome).
not that first act, it was made by the first act custom shop, which unfortunately isn't around anymore.
Dude,,,Rewind. Go to High on Fire - Death is this Comunion and the anser lies there why ten's are so Killer!
Give guitar Dave!
This guy just doesn't seem to like this guitar. "I always thought of B.C. rich as a heavy metal guitar. Well these we're made even in the 80's so I can see why you would think that but this guitar doesn't follow trends. He always seems to think "There's too many switches, and it doesn't make a big difference."
When your in a studio you can make this sound EXACTLY like what you want. Plus if you don't like the 10 strings, take the extra 4 off. Why bitch about it?
I'm not "Biching" (heheh, got your pun) just asking. Trying to start dialogue about an interesting guitar. Thanks for commenting!
MoreThanGuitar
I thought it was pretty good.
None the less, what is your thought about this guitar? Does it play similar to a les paul, is it a heavy guitar (especially while standing?) And did you end up enjoying all the features or do you still see no use for them?
Nothing like a Paul. Weight is medium, solid chunk of wood, but not over heavy. Nicely made axe, but as you saw in the vid, I couldn't figure out a good use for it. Scroll down the other UA-cam comments. I got some references to dudes who use it exclusively and well.
First Act actually has a custom shop and a beginner series. They're the same company, but the quality of the guitars is on a completely different level.
0.20
For god's sake man, plug in a decent microphone and forget the POS built into the camera!
Yeah, well, every affordable fix I've tried sounded worse. My camcorder is ideal for UA-cam, but only has an 8th inch audio input. Any suggestions?
MoreThanGuitar The cheapo audio built into most consumer camcorders is more than adequate for things like home movies and basic travel videos. If you're not playing music, but just talking - okay, sure. But for demonstrating a musical instrument, or amp, or style, or a piece you've composed (or covered) what's the point of having distant, tinny, echoic sound that most consumer camcorder built-in microphones are going to yield? Nobody out there can even come close to appreciating the sound. It makes me wince to hear someone who clearly has musical talent displaying a video where it sounds like it was recorded in a tunnel.
Find out the specs on the camcorder's audio. If it is at least 16 bit and has a sampling rate of at least 44.1kHz, you can plug in a decent condenser mic on a cable (not more than maybe eight feet long since it isn't balanced and will pick up induced noise). If you can afford a stereo microphone, it will sound even better because you'll have room presence and the listener will have more of a feel of being in the room with you. If $58 is an affordable solution to getting good music onto your camcorder, I have used the Audio-Technica PRO24CM on a DSLR with an 1/8" input with decent success. Of course you still want to get as close as you can, so put the camcorder on its widest lens setting and put the tripod within six feet of yourself or closer if you can. Otherwise, put the microphone on a stand of its own and use a short extension cable if necessary.
If you own a mixer, there is a possibility of running one of the line outs to the camcorder's audio jack. Your camera would have to be able to switch its input from mic-level to line-level.
If the camcorder's audio specs are not up to recording music (say 12-bit or 32kHz) then use one of those pocket stereo recorders that does have better specs. Then if you have a video editing application, you can clap your hands periodically while you're shooting (and edit that out later) and sync the visual waveform on the computer monitor with the frame of your hands coming together (the old poor-man's clapboard). And you can also try to line up the waveforms of the sound from the external recorder with the "reference track" the camera recorded (there is software available that will do that automatically). But that's about all most camera-bound audio is good for - syncing the tracks from external recorders.
MoreThanGuitar Samson Meteor mic on the guitar cab, and sync it in post? Your voice can still be picked up via the cam mic.
That'll work. I should have mentioned - mic the cab. That's really what is going to best portray the sound of your vid. But I still shudder at talking to a crappy camcorder mic across the room. So unless the camcorder is no more than say 4-5 feet away, plug a reasonable directional mic (hypercardoid or even a short shotgun) into the camcorder and put it on a stand closer to you than the camera tripod. IMO it still sounds terrible for you to be talking to a built-in camera mic from across the room. These were really designed for in-your-face interview style shots.
For most consumer camcorders you might need 1/4" to 1/8" adapter, depending on your choice mic. But keep in mind what I said about the camcorder NOT supporting balanced microphone inputs (unless you're using a killer prosumer camera with XLR ins and manual gain controls) - so your cable distance shouldn't be more than a few feet (maybe six feet tops). Plus if the camcorder has a single stereo external microphone input, you probably cannot use both an external microphone and the built-in mic at the same time. Plugging in an external mic most likely will defeat the internal mic.
I still think the best setup is to run whatever mics you use into your mixer and run the outputs to the camera. If the camera doesn't support line level inputs, then you'll need to pad your mixer outputs somehow. Some mixers can be switched to output mic level signals (typically portable field mixers) or you can use inline pads. Also you'll need to get the two outputs converted into an 1/8" TRS (stereo) cable for the camera.
Of course if you own any external stereo recorder (like a Xoom) - use it instead of the camera audio. Even if it doesn't sync perfectly, unless your video goes more than a few minutes or you utilize an extreme closeup of your face or hands on the guitar, no one will probably notice.
The reality is most camera audio really sucks, no matter how you slice it. But at least remedy the worst problem of replacing the fifty-cent on-board camera mic that is across the room with a decent dedicated dynamic mic placed right in front of (touching) your cab for the guitar sound. Get a used Shure SM57 on eBay maybe. Then find a video on UA-cam on miking guitar cabs - it's no big deal.
Don't sell your sound short.
Cheers
no wonder dave mustaine had a weird tone in his metallica days and early megadeth days. Using this crap
shut. the . fuck. up
My BC Rich plays awesome, every les paul plays like a 2x4. Maybe it's the poor quality recording, most early thrash/speed metal had this problem, and maybe the heroin may have played a role. Fender's do play nice.
Review?? Get a dictionary and check the word out.
You said this was a review of a ten-string guitar.
You played a two-string power chord only then through an effect, so eight strings were unused, those especially being the doubled ( two 'octave' strings+ two doubled) strings as you call them ( the whole point of a ten-string???) and the pickups weren't used 'clean'!! What is the point? All you actually did was gripe about what it possibly is for, played two strings, without mentioning their make and tell people who made the pickups!
You could've used any BC Rich 6 string and got pretty much the same response...
NOT A REVIEW OF A TEN STRING GUITAR.
Did Gibson show their twin-neck by showing a two-string power chord on the 6 string neck?
Awful 'review'!!
you complain to much, u didnt find anything that u liked in that guitar did you.
Think we have more guitar than player, that's for big boys.
Sure, but why? Just get a regular Bich.