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B.C. Rich

Bich

Neal Moser built it with ten strings. Plenty of the people who loved it took four of them off.

East L.A., 1977. Bernie Rico is away in Japan, and the man who wires his guitars, Neal Moser, goes into the woodshop. He wants a guitar with the shimmer of a twelve-string that can still take a lot of gain. What he cuts out has a notch in the back end and four extra tuners in it.

Introduced
1978
Type
Solidbody electric
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

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The short version

  1. 1977

    The prototype

    Moser builds the first one in September, with black walnut sides and a maple neck.

  2. 1978

    NAMM debut

    The “Rich Bich” shows up at Winter NAMM as a custom-order ten-string.

  3. 1978

    The six-string

    A lot of players don’t want the extra strings, so B.C. Rich makes a six-string version.

  4. 1978

    On the cover

    Joe Perry’s red ten-string is on the front of Aerosmith’s Live! Bootleg.

  5. 1980

    The Project

    Perry leans on it harder on the first Joe Perry Project album.

  6. 1985

    Megadeth

    Dave Mustaine plays his Bich on Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!

Side A

A1

Ten strings and a lot of gain

Some guitars are built to please everybody. This one was built around one very specific idea, and then everybody made it their own anyway.

The idea belonged to Neal Moser. He did the electronics at B.C. Rich, Bernie Rico’s shop in East L.A., where the guitars already had preamps and more switches than most people knew what to do with. Moser wanted a guitar that would give you the jangle of a twelve-string and still survive being cranked through a loud amp.

A2

While the boss was in Japan

In 1977, with Rico away in Japan, Moser went into the woodshop and cut one. The first prototype was finished that September, with black walnut sides and a maple neck, and it debuted at Winter NAMM in 1978 as a custom order.

The name came from a county fair. Moser and his wife saw charms that read “Rich Bitch,” and they agreed that would work. The T went. It’s been the Bich ever since, though the company now stamps it Rich B.

A3

The notch

Look at the back end of the body. There’s a diagonal cut past the bridge, and four extra tuners sit in it. Those four strings run the other way, from the notch up the neck, so the headstock can stay a normal three-a-side.

How those extra strings are tuned depends who you ask. One version doubles the E and B strings in unison and adds octaves to the G and D. Another has unisons on D and G, and octaves on B and high E. Neither is a factory chart from 1978. Either way, you get some of that twelve-string sparkle on top, and a low end that can still take distortion.

Moser gave it ten strings, two preamps, and six toggles. Players took what they wanted and left the rest.

The wiring went further than the other B.C. Riches, too. The Bich added a second preamp to Moser’s circuit. A 1981 ten-string has six knobs, six toggles, and a six-way Varitone.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • 10

    Strings. Six at the headstock, four more tuned from a notch behind the bridge.

  • 2

    Preamps. The Bich added a second one to Moser’s circuit.

  • 25dB

    The boost on Mustaine’s Bich, according to his bandmate Chris Poland.

  • 16

    Anniversary copies built from Moser’s 1978 templates, out of 25 planned.

Side B

B1

Six strings, same shape

It didn’t take long to find out that not everybody wanted all that. By 1978, Moser says, they could see a lot of people weren’t going to use the ten-string feature, “and that’s why we brought out the 6 string model.”

That was the real surprise. The notched shape was the thing people wanted. A bolt-on version, the Son of a Rich, followed in 1980.

B2

Perry’s red ten-string

Joe Perry got his after another B.C. Rich was stolen, and the shop handed him the next one: a red Bich 10 Supreme. It’s on the cover of Aerosmith’s Live! Bootleg in 1978. He played it on a few Aerosmith songs, in the studio and live, near the end before he left. There’s more of it on the first Joe Perry Project album, Let the Music Do the Talking.

It still became one of the three guitars people most associate with him. And he fiddled with it. For a stretch he unhooked everything but a volume and one tone. For another stretch he pulled the extra four strings. Then he put both back.

B3

Mustaine’s, missing four

Dave Mustaine calls it the first serious guitar he bought with his own money. He starts to say Jackson and corrects himself: “no, my BC Rich Bich 10-string.” The extra four strings came off.

Talking about Megadeth’s first album, he said, “As far as my guitar, when it was where I left it, it was usually the B.C. Rich Bich.” That line is carrying some weight. The story goes that the Bich was pawned at one point, without his knowledge, by Chris Poland. Poland, for his part, remembers the 25dB boost on it. “He’d just crank that up and punish that Marshall.”

That’s Moser’s idea, more or less. A guitar that could take a lot of gain. Mustaine just did it with six strings, and Perry did it with ten, then six, then ten again. Neal Moser built one very particular guitar, and the people who loved it most kept rebuilding it into their own.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

  1. The Joe Perry Project · 1980

    Let the Music Do the Talking

    Perry’s first album after leaving Aerosmith, and the record with more of the Bich on it.

    Find it on YouTube

  2. Megadeth · 1985

    Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!

    Mustaine’s Bich, with a boost that Chris Poland says he’d “just crank that up and punish that Marshall.”

    Find it on YouTube

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 1977

    Neal Moser

    Designer

    Wired B.C. Rich’s guitars, then cut the ten-string himself while the boss was out of the country.

  • 1978

    Joe Perry

    Red Bich 10 Supreme

    Handed to him after another B.C. Rich was stolen. It became one of the guitars people know him for.

  • 1985

    Dave Mustaine

    Bich ten-string, four strings removed

    Megadeth. The first serious guitar he bought with his own money.

  • 1985

    Chris Poland

    Bandmate

    Megadeth’s other guitarist on the first album, and the witness to Mustaine’s boost.

  • Lita Ford

    Rich Bitch

    Owns Bichs alongside her Warlocks and Mockingbirds.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

B.C. Rich’s 1978 notched 10-string, extra tuners below the bridge — Bich, not a Mockingbird, not a Warlock.

Body
Mahogany neck-through, Rich "B" cut; contrasting wood stringers
Neck
Three-piece maple, Modern "C", traditional 3+3
Fingerboard
Ebony, 24 jumbo, MOP clouds
Scale
24 5/8"
Pickups
DiMarzio D Activator DP219BK neck / DP220BK bridge, USA. Factory/zZounds copy labels both "Neck."
Hardware
Quad 10 bridge; Grover; chrome; string-through
Electronics
2 vol, 1 tone, 3-way, coil-tap minis, reverse phase, 5-position Varitone. zZounds: passive.
Finish
Trans Red (factory Perfect 10)
Nut
Synthetic graphite, 43mm
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current typical = Rich B Legacy Perfect 10 (imported 10-string; bcrich.com, fetched 2 September 2026). Factory scale inches, nut millimetres. Mix flagged; no extra millimetres invented. Sweetwater writes Nyatoh body and Nyatoh neck; factory table is mahogany / 3-piece maple. Mix flagged. Factory Original price $2,500.00, sale $1,599.99. zZounds and American Musical street $1,599.99. Rich "B" Legacy is the 6-string sibling on this plate, not a second slug. Rich B Legacy Exotic (koa top) and Rich B Legacy Double Neck (6/12) stay here. USA Handcrafted Rich B / Rich B 10 Supreme are shop SKUs, not this table. Bich bass is not this guitar.

Construction

East L.A., late 1970s. Bernardo Chavez Rico already had a heelless neck-through and an aviary. Seagull 1971. Eagle after the 1975 Seagull overhaul. Mockingbird 1976. The next job was not another bird. Neal Moser wanted a 10-string that would still take a lot of gain.

Moser licensed the shape to Rico. Vintage Guitar’s Mockingbird plate: Moser’s circuits 1974, the Rich Bich three years later. Premier Guitar (Joe Charupakorn): 1977, while Bernie was in Japan, Moser went into the woodshop and cut the 10-string. Moser himself (bcrich.net interview): first prototype September 1977, serial PROTO 9-77; African black walnut sides, maple neck; debut at 1978 Winter NAMM as a custom-order “Rich Bich.” Keep 1977 and NAMM. Shipping year on this plate is 1978.

The name is a dropped T. Premier Guitar, via Mal Stich: Moser and his wife at a county fair saw charms that read “Rich Bitch.” They agreed that would work. The T went.

The notch is the job. Four extra tuners sit in a diagonal cut past the bridge, extra strings running the other way so the headstock stays a conventional 3+3. Wikipedia: E and B unison pairs, G and D principal-plus-octave, A and low E singles — 12-string brightness that would still distort. Reverb News (Elizabeth Hanson) and Premier Guitar’s 1981 quilted 10-string go the other way: unison D and G, octaves on B and high E. Keep both. Neither source is a factory string chart from 1978.

Moser’s circuit already had a preamp, Varitone, phase, and coil taps on Seagull / Mockingbird / Eagle. The Bich added a second preamp (Reverb News). Premier Guitar on that 1981 10-string: two preamps, six knobs, six toggles, 6-position Varitone.

Players bought the silhouette and yanked the extras. Moser: they realized in 1978 that a lot of people wouldn’t use the 10-string feature, “and that’s why we brought out the 6 string model.” Wikipedia says the same, without a month. 1980: Son of a Rich = bolt-on Bich (Reverb News) — same silhouette, not a second encyclopedia object. Reverb News: later bodies take a shallower cut so a Kahler can sit there. 1983 NJ Series Nagoya. Class Axe, late 1980s: quality crash. Rico licenses the name 1989 and retires. License expires 1993. Rico dies 3 December 1999 (VG; Warlock plate). Hanser 2001; Praxis 2015 (VG). 2019 team (Bill Xavier) per Wikipedia company page.

Factory now stamps Rich B. Same notch. Not a Mockingbird (1976 offset bird). Not a Warlock (1981 jagged). Not an Ironbird (1983). Not Eagle, Seagull, or Widow. Not Bich bass. Doubleneck 6/12 lives here, not as a second slug. NJ / Class Axe / later ownership eras are other factories on this name. Joe Perry’s red 10-string is this plate. His Mockingbird stays on the Mockingbird plate.

Classic vs current: 1977–78 USA 10-string — walnut/maple prototype woods (Moser), two preamps, 6-way Varitone — against the living imported Perfect 10: mahogany (Sweetwater nyatoh), passive D Activators, 5-way Varitone, Quad 10, 24 5/8", 43mm nut.

Players

Joe Perry (Aerosmith / Joe Perry Project). Guitar World (Andrew Daly, 31 March 2026): after a B.C. Rich was stolen, the shop handed him the next guitar, a red 10-string Bich 10 Supreme. Live! Bootleg (1978) cover. Perry: he played it on a few Aerosmith songs in the studio and live a bit, near the end before he left; it became one of the top three guitars associated with him anyway. More of it on the first Project album, Let the Music Do the Talking (1980). For a stretch he unhooked everything but volume and one tone; for another stretch he pulled the extra four. He put both back. Mockingbird — Nite Bob, Fin Costello 1976 — stays on the Mockingbird plate.

Lita Ford. Reverb interview 27 September 2017 (already on the Warlock plate): she owns Warlocks, Rich Bitches, and Mockingbirds. Bich belongs here.

Dave Mustaine (Megadeth). Guitar World (2018), on Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!: “As far as my guitar, when it was where I left it, it was usually the B.C. Rich Bich.” Chris Poland, Guitar World 22 May 2025: Mustaine had a Bich with a 25dB boost on that record; “He’d just crank that up and punish that Marshall.” Guitar World, 17 September 2024: first serious guitar he bought with his own money — he starts to say Jackson, then “no, my BC Rich Bich 10-string.” Wikipedia’s company page: extra four strings removed; the guitar was pawned, without Mustaine’s knowledge, by Poland. Mustaine in that 2018 piece talks pawn shops for guitars and cymbals on the road. Keep the pawned-Bich claim on Wikipedia. Do not invent a Kill ’Em All credit.

Also known to play (Wikipedia laundry list, last, short): Chris Poland; Manny Charlton; George Kooymans; John Christ. No named instruments invented for that list. Slash’s Warlock 88414 stays on the Warlock plate. Kerry King signatures live there too. Chuck Schuldiner is a Stealth tribute, not this guitar.

Rarity

Factory does not publish Bich unit totals. None invented. Current Legacy Perfect 10 / Rich "B" Legacy / Exotic / Double Neck are regular production (imported). USA Handcrafted is a shop guitar, not a census. NJ / Platinum / Class Axe lines are discontinued. Early USA 10-strings and the 1977 prototype are the scarce end.

Wikipedia: 25th-anniversary PMS run — HHI contracted Moser and Sal Gonzales for 25 hand-built copies from Moser’s 1978 templates (black African walnut, maple, Brazilian rosewood); contract fight, 16 built. That 16 is a named limited run, not a 1978 factory total. Fjestad’s company-wide more than 1,000/year by the late 1970s (Mockingbird plate) is not a Bich count. Serial year-slip is why the count is unknown, not the chapter. Celebrity objects are unique, not a vintage Bich.

Value

Informal estimate, 2 September 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask vs sold labeled. Celebrity lots are not-comps. No invented medians or factory counts. Reverb Price Guide widget did not print a clean USD Bich band this pass.

New street. Factory Perfect 10 Original price $2,500.00, sale $1,599.99. zZounds $1,599.99. American Musical $1,599.99. Rich "B" Legacy factory sale $1,599.99. Rich B Legacy Exotic factory sale $1,699.99. USA Handcrafted: buy-now Rich B Standard $10,500.00; Rich B 10 Supreme Trans Green $12,000.00, Trans Red $10,500. VG Oct. 2005 Bich 10 Supreme retail $4,099 is dated 2005, not a 2026 cart.

Used modern. Named asks this pass, not a midpoint: Reverb used Perfect 10 with case $1,499 (ended). Platinum-series asks sit in the $479.99–$549.99 band on current Reverb cards — later factory, not a 1978 USA 10-string.

Vintage / collectible. Named asks, not sold: Music Zoo 1977–78 natural birdseye (pots ’77, non-serialized, pre-NAMM story on that listing) $5,879.20; 1984 Trans Red $7,999.99; 1985 Natural Maple $8,500; USA Supreme $8,000. Make’n Music 1981 Trans Red listed $9,699 and marked sold — hammer unpublished here. Perry’s Bootleg 10-string is celebrity, not a street tape.

See also

  • bc-rich-mockingbird — 1976 offset bird; not this notch
  • bc-rich-warlock — 1981 jagged metal guitar; not a Bich
  • dean-ml — 1977 V-plus-Explorer hybrid; another pointed silhouette, not a Bich

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.