I found your totally rad websites after looking for info about this guitar model as I bought one for myself. I really dig the way you explain things your guitars, stay cool!
I just stumbled upon this older video of yours - thanks for posting it... I have a 1986 Ibanez Pro Line PL1880, which is somewhat similar to your BC. It is HSS, with the original Ibanez Edge trem, an oil rubbed maple Ultra neck, a bound ebony board (instead of rosewood like yours), 3 mini toggles, a push/push coil spilt for the humbucker, and it uses Ibanez pickups that I’m pretty sure were made in conjunction with Dimarzio. My pickups all have black plastic covers, so no pole pieces are visible. My body is a maple, mahogany, maple sandwich, with a clear coat and no colored finish, but they seem to be very similar guitars otherwise, especially since they date to the same year. Also, my body shape is more rounded than yours...more like an Ibanez Radius. I am aware that Jackson made a bolt-on soloist with the three mini toggles, soon after (I believe) their original neck-through design was released. My guess is that both of our guitars are sort of copies of this Jackson model.
Sorry for the late reply, but I agree. I’m also a big fan of those Ibanez 540R’s with the 3 toggles, at one point I had 4 or 5 of them. Been wanting to try one of the Proline models, just waiting for the right deal. I also have a Jackson ‘88 so I can imagine what they felt like at the time and they are pretty similar, except the Jackson bolt ons all had that oiled/bare neck finish which I don’t like as much as a more glossy one - all personal preference.
The STs came with a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge and OEM DiMarzio single coils. The Gunsinger came with a singe Super Distortion. Most BC Riches in the 70s and 80s came with a Super Distortion in the bridge and either a DiMarzio PAF neck or Super D or Super 2 neck. Some Riches came with the DiMarzio X2N in the bridge. Also, some old BCRs came with the Moser built-in preamp with a chicken head control knob. I always felt they were unnecessary as the DiMarzio Super Distortion or X2N have more than enough output.
The Gunslingers were in production as early as 1988, probably 1987. I bought my BC Rich ST III about 1988 from Lier's Music, San Bernardino, CA. They had about 10 BC Rich guitars on display, about half of them were the ST III while the others were the Gunslinger, with crazy neon colors, standard & reverse headstock and single canted HB. I paid about $700 for mine. I believe the Gunslinger was a little more $$...maybe $750-ish. My ST III, with the stock DiMarzio HB doesn't have the model stamped on the brass plate...but its been said that the stock humbucker is a PAF Pro, which IMO sounds good through a high gain amp. The rear control cavity covers are anodized aluminum. Its been written that Bernie Rico Sr. didnt want the ST (super-strat) however, he may have been out of most of the decision making at this point. Supposedly, the ST line was the brain child of a former Charvel marketing guy, who was obviously BC Rich's competitors. Whereas, the entry level NJ and Platinum guitars were completely built in Asia, The ST bodies and necks were imported from Japan then assembled in Los Angeles...hence Made in USA. Technically assembled in USA.
@@totallyradguitars959 I always understand as a teen from the 80’s that the necks were Jackson/Charvel produced with the BC Rich headstock. I had one Jackson and the neck was pretty identical. I have the Hot Pink, Snakeskin and a Gunslinger that is Navy Camo. The Gunslinger is a super shredder.
I had a ST-III in a Tony MacAlpine finish (green, purple, blue crackle, doesn't get more 80s than that). All of my pickups had the solid covers, kind of like they were going for an EMG/active pickup feel, but they were all passive pickups. So my bridge pickup looks like the one on your natural finish one - I believe your bridge pickup is stock on that guitar. I also don't remember my tone knob being anything other than a regular tone knob. It could have been a push/pull pot and I just never knew that out of ignorance at the time. I bought it new from a music store but it didn't come with any sort of user manual or anything. I remember the tremolo was a licensed Floyd that had "BC Rich" engraved on it. I also had a Gunslinger that I bought used. I wish I would have kept them but every guitarist knows the drill when it comes to gear, most eventually leaves for new incoming stuff and some of it you regret later on.
You might want to tighten-up the trem springs on that metallic blue BC Rich guitar, the bridge shouldn't be floating with it angled towards the bridge pickup, the bridgeplate should be floating parallel to the front surface of the body.
Howdy! It is parallel to the surface, but maybe it's hard to tell here since the Edge bridges have an angled part of the base plate. Anyway, I sold this guitar years ago...
Hey, the serial number alone is not enough to know for sure. I’d need to see pictures front and back - what inlays, bridge, etc it has. The NJ series ran for a long time with a lot of changes - there is a Facebook group with some experts who can likely point you in the right direction even better than I could. Cheers
Hy! I'm trying to understand Which model is my BC RICH. I'm pretty sure is a ST III Neck Through body. Can you confirm it if you can? It has no serial number to check
@@avv.andreagalmacci7071 Hey, you can email me a few pictures at totallyradguitars@gmail.com. There is also a “bc rich junkies” Facebook group that is extremely helpful. Cheers
That's a crazy deal! Usually it is 10" radius by default, but keep in mind these could be custom ordered, not just by a person but by an individual store. So if a store ordered 10 of them with 12" or 14", no way to know without measuring the physical guitar. Guitars were different back then, production lines existed but it was much more common to have little tweaks and custom options, and record keeping was poor. Cheers
The push/pull pot is probably a mod. I've owned 5 and played more and have never come across a push/pull pot on one. It's interesting looking at your price list where it states a maple fretboard at no extra charge since I have one with a maple board. The very earliest ones are missing the "made in USA" on the headstock and I have one of those.
If they are early ones like these, they used Ibanez edge trems, Grover tuners, and Dimarzio pickups which should all be easy enough to find. As for knobs, cavity covers etc, you could try fretsonthenet but you may have to cut your own or settle for something from Amazon/Stewmac/allparts etc Later models used a gotoh 1996-like trem stamped “BC Rich,” that may be a bit harder to locate
I say that because I have two right here in my hands complete with factory documentation and catalogs that show the Ibanez Edge was the factory trem for USA’s made in 1987. Later USA models came with a Gotoh made GE1988T stamped with BC Rich. The SFT-70A was only used on cheaper import models, made in Korea. It can be confusing because the model name “ST-III” was used on USA, Japan, and Korean made guitars. I am strictly talking about USA in this video. Cheers
I really enjoyed the video. I lucked out and found a rainbow leopard ST-III in beautiful condition in a pawn shop (C.C. DeVille had one like mine in a Poison music video). It's rad looking for sure, I swapped the DiMarzio it came with for a purple Seymour Duncan Custom 5, but I kept the original single coils because I think they sound great. I also swapped the bridge for a black Floyd Rose Original Limited 1984 Tremolo (I had to keep the stock trem block, though). I own better guitars, but I'll never part with my ST-III. It's way too awesome!
Neither - it's some kind of OEM Dimarzio made for BC Rich. Dimarzio made a lot of pickups for brands in the 80s that aren't in the catalog. The main thing I remember is that it read something like 15-16k ohms and both coils were about the same, so it wasn't a super distortion, or any of the dual resonance stuff that came out later. Maybe it was something like the DP150 Double Whammy? Not sure exactly. No model number on the bottom either, just "Dimarzio U.S.A."
@@totallyradguitars959 I recently got another St-III and this one has that same OEM covered humbucker that your natural wood finish one had, so maybe those were a factory option from BC Rich. It also has scalloped frets from the 10th fret up. I'm the 3rd owner and the guy that I bought it from swears that it's all original. Maybe the person who ordered it was just a really big Yngwie fan. Ever seen or heard of any custom shop options like that? Thanks!
@@ShieldOfTuor that sounds awesome, and really it wouldn’t surprise me if it was original. These guitars are from the era when you could call up a name brand guitar maker, ask for something, and they’d give you a quote and just do it. I know that is still possible through customs shops but it’s not quite the same. I have a page on my website with the catalog from 1987 for the ST-3’s, and there is an options list. You could get binding on neck and body, neck through, active electronics, almost any wood you wanted - and at the bottom, it says you can make custom requests and they will give you a quote. Scallop isn’t on the options list but that doesn’t surprise me for ‘87, it probably wasn’t that common of a request. This page: totallyradguitars.com/bc-rich#/resourcescatalogs/
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
8:20 - "Stop honking your horn, thats why I cant record in my house" and you have 2000watts off guitar heads sitting there..lol, I love this.
I found your totally rad websites after looking for info about this guitar model as I bought one for myself. I really dig the way you explain things your guitars, stay cool!
Thanks! I'm trying to get some more resources for the site too. Glad you got one, these are really sweet!
I just stumbled upon this older video of yours - thanks for posting it...
I have a 1986 Ibanez Pro Line PL1880, which is somewhat similar to your BC. It is HSS, with the original Ibanez Edge trem, an oil rubbed maple Ultra neck, a bound ebony board (instead of rosewood like yours), 3 mini toggles, a push/push coil spilt for the humbucker, and it uses Ibanez pickups that I’m pretty sure were made in conjunction with Dimarzio. My pickups all have black plastic covers, so no pole pieces are visible. My body is a maple, mahogany, maple sandwich, with a clear coat and no colored finish, but they seem to be very similar guitars otherwise, especially since they date to the same year. Also, my body shape is more rounded than yours...more like an Ibanez Radius.
I am aware that Jackson made a bolt-on soloist with the three mini toggles, soon after (I believe) their original neck-through design was released. My guess is that both of our guitars are sort of copies of this Jackson model.
Sorry for the late reply, but I agree. I’m also a big fan of those Ibanez 540R’s with the 3 toggles, at one point I had 4 or 5 of them. Been wanting to try one of the Proline models, just waiting for the right deal. I also have a Jackson ‘88 so I can imagine what they felt like at the time and they are pretty similar, except the Jackson bolt ons all had that oiled/bare neck finish which I don’t like as much as a more glossy one - all personal preference.
The STs came with a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge and OEM DiMarzio single coils. The Gunsinger came with a singe Super Distortion. Most BC Riches in the 70s and 80s came with a Super Distortion in the bridge and either a DiMarzio PAF neck or Super D or Super 2 neck. Some Riches came with the DiMarzio X2N in the bridge. Also, some old BCRs came with the Moser built-in preamp with a chicken head control knob. I always felt they were unnecessary as the DiMarzio Super Distortion or X2N have more than enough output.
The Gunslingers were in production as early as 1988, probably 1987. I bought my BC Rich ST III about 1988 from Lier's Music, San Bernardino, CA. They had about 10 BC Rich guitars on display, about half of them were the ST III while the others were the Gunslinger, with crazy neon colors, standard & reverse headstock and single canted HB. I paid about $700 for mine. I believe the Gunslinger was a little more $$...maybe $750-ish. My ST III, with the stock DiMarzio HB doesn't have the model stamped on the brass plate...but its been said that the stock humbucker is a PAF Pro, which IMO sounds good through a high gain amp. The rear control cavity covers are anodized aluminum. Its been written that Bernie Rico Sr. didnt want the ST (super-strat) however, he may have been out of most of the decision making at this point. Supposedly, the ST line was the brain child of a former Charvel marketing guy, who was obviously BC Rich's competitors. Whereas, the entry level NJ and Platinum guitars were completely built in Asia, The ST bodies and necks were imported from Japan then assembled in Los Angeles...hence Made in USA. Technically assembled in USA.
I have my original ST-3 I bought brand new in 1988. It is in hot pink!
Nice! I bet that's a beauty... I sold both of these but need to get my hands on another, the necks are amazing.
@@totallyradguitars959 I always understand as a teen from the 80’s that the necks were Jackson/Charvel produced with the BC Rich headstock. I had one Jackson and the neck was pretty identical. I have the Hot Pink, Snakeskin and a Gunslinger that is Navy Camo. The Gunslinger is a super shredder.
I still own a hot pink ST-III which I bought in 1987 or 1988 at Sam Ash in NYC. I still love playing it.
@@mirabilej I bought mine in 1987 or 88 at Sam Ash on 48th St.. I probably saw you there, LOL.
Thoughts on the NJ series? Thinking about snagging one
Those are so great
Great vid ! Keep it up man !
Thanks!
I had a ST-III in a Tony MacAlpine finish (green, purple, blue crackle, doesn't get more 80s than that). All of my pickups had the solid covers, kind of like they were going for an EMG/active pickup feel, but they were all passive pickups. So my bridge pickup looks like the one on your natural finish one - I believe your bridge pickup is stock on that guitar. I also don't remember my tone knob being anything other than a regular tone knob. It could have been a push/pull pot and I just never knew that out of ignorance at the time. I bought it new from a music store but it didn't come with any sort of user manual or anything. I remember the tremolo was a licensed Floyd that had "BC Rich" engraved on it.
I also had a Gunslinger that I bought used. I wish I would have kept them but every guitarist knows the drill when it comes to gear, most eventually leaves for new incoming stuff and some of it you regret later on.
Man, that is so cool. Speaking of regrets, yep, me too - I sold both of the guitars in this video. Wish I'd kept at least one of them.
You might want to tighten-up the trem springs on that metallic blue BC Rich guitar, the bridge shouldn't be floating with it angled towards the bridge pickup, the bridgeplate should be floating parallel to the front surface of the body.
Howdy! It is parallel to the surface, but maybe it's hard to tell here since the Edge bridges have an angled part of the base plate. Anyway, I sold this guitar years ago...
I have two 1984 Made In Japan St-III guitars. Both of them have Khaler Flyer bridges and drooped down headstock with Japanese RICH logo.
I have the st3 Blue métal flake like this one!
That Headstock shape was referred to as the "Harpoon" headstock. The later Gunslingers had that reversed.
I had the same exact one in blue.
i have an NJ Series ST-III, the serial is B1151
any idea when it was made?
Hey, the serial number alone is not enough to know for sure. I’d need to see pictures front and back - what inlays, bridge, etc it has. The NJ series ran for a long time with a lot of changes - there is a Facebook group with some experts who can likely point you in the right direction even better than I could. Cheers
Hy! I'm trying to understand Which model is my BC RICH. I'm pretty sure is a ST III Neck Through body. Can you confirm it if you can? It has no serial number to check
@@avv.andreagalmacci7071 Hey, you can email me a few pictures at totallyradguitars@gmail.com. There is also a “bc rich junkies” Facebook group that is extremely helpful. Cheers
Hey I just found an st-3 USA model like yours for $100!!!! It’s a bit beat up.
Do you know the radius of the fretboard? Based off the catalog?
That's a crazy deal! Usually it is 10" radius by default, but keep in mind these could be custom ordered, not just by a person but by an individual store. So if a store ordered 10 of them with 12" or 14", no way to know without measuring the physical guitar. Guitars were different back then, production lines existed but it was much more common to have little tweaks and custom options, and record keeping was poor. Cheers
@ I’ll just let the luthier figure it out. I’m gonna have it refretted.
The push/pull pot is probably a mod. I've owned 5 and played more and have never come across a push/pull pot on one.
It's interesting looking at your price list where it states a maple fretboard at no extra charge since I have one with a maple board.
The very earliest ones are missing the "made in USA" on the headstock and I have one of those.
I have the same guitar I need to fix up. Any idea where I can get parts
If they are early ones like these, they used Ibanez edge trems, Grover tuners, and Dimarzio pickups which should all be easy enough to find. As for knobs, cavity covers etc, you could try fretsonthenet but you may have to cut your own or settle for something from Amazon/Stewmac/allparts etc
Later models used a gotoh 1996-like trem stamped “BC Rich,” that may be a bit harder to locate
A gibson dirty finger pup in bridge sounds so good in a gunslinger or st 3...
Man! What's that riff you're playing @10:04 till @10:14 ? Sounds so cool!
Hey! That's "Lay It Down" by RATT. Definitely one of the best riffs around in my opinion!
@@totallyradguitars959 Thanks man! I'll try to learn this one, sounds sick. Nice playing by the way, and awesome disto tone
Why do you say these have Ibanez trems when they were built with the SFT-70A Young Chang licensed Floyds?
I say that because I have two right here in my hands complete with factory documentation and catalogs that show the Ibanez Edge was the factory trem for USA’s made in 1987. Later USA models came with a Gotoh made GE1988T stamped with BC Rich.
The SFT-70A was only used on cheaper import models, made in Korea.
It can be confusing because the model name “ST-III” was used on USA, Japan, and Korean made guitars. I am strictly talking about USA in this video. Cheers
I really enjoyed the video. I lucked out and found a rainbow leopard ST-III in beautiful condition in a pawn shop (C.C. DeVille had one like mine in a Poison music video). It's rad looking for sure, I swapped the DiMarzio it came with for a purple Seymour Duncan Custom 5, but I kept the original single coils because I think they sound great. I also swapped the bridge for a black Floyd Rose Original Limited 1984 Tremolo (I had to keep the stock trem block, though). I own better guitars, but I'll never part with my ST-III. It's way too awesome!
Wow that sounds awesome! I sold both of these but I would’ve kept them if they had a cool paint job like that. Rock on
CC sold a ton of his BC Rich guitars back in the 90s.
Do you tour or just play at home
similar to mine, natural finish
I wish I could afford one of these
I have the natural one from this video listed on Reverb right now, I'm open to offers. The blue one is already sold however.
@@totallyradguitars959 is there any chance I could have the link please ?
@@georgecharleston2597 reverb.com/item/37508562-1987-b-c-rich-st-iii-natural-wood-usa-made-w-edge-trem
And now - sold.
Do you know if the humbucker in the blue one was a super distortion or a paf pro?
Neither - it's some kind of OEM Dimarzio made for BC Rich. Dimarzio made a lot of pickups for brands in the 80s that aren't in the catalog. The main thing I remember is that it read something like 15-16k ohms and both coils were about the same, so it wasn't a super distortion, or any of the dual resonance stuff that came out later. Maybe it was something like the DP150 Double Whammy? Not sure exactly. No model number on the bottom either, just "Dimarzio U.S.A."
Awesome, thanks. Those 80s st-iiis are such weird guitars when you start breaking them down but I love them.
@@totallyradguitars959 I recently got another St-III and this one has that same OEM covered humbucker that your natural wood finish one had, so maybe those were a factory option from BC Rich. It also has scalloped frets from the 10th fret up. I'm the 3rd owner and the guy that I bought it from swears that it's all original. Maybe the person who ordered it was just a really big Yngwie fan. Ever seen or heard of any custom shop options like that? Thanks!
@@ShieldOfTuor that sounds awesome, and really it wouldn’t surprise me if it was original. These guitars are from the era when you could call up a name brand guitar maker, ask for something, and they’d give you a quote and just do it. I know that is still possible through customs shops but it’s not quite the same.
I have a page on my website with the catalog from 1987 for the ST-3’s, and there is an options list. You could get binding on neck and body, neck through, active electronics, almost any wood you wanted - and at the bottom, it says you can make custom requests and they will give you a quote. Scallop isn’t on the options list but that doesn’t surprise me for ‘87, it probably wasn’t that common of a request.
This page: totallyradguitars.com/bc-rich#/resourcescatalogs/