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Every guitar has a story.

B.C. Rich

Mockingbird

It started as a bass player’s doodle. Then Joe Perry and Slash got hold of one.

Whittier, California, the mid-1970s. The way most people tell it, a bass player named Johnny “GoGo” Kallas is sketching a custom bass in a music store, and Bernie Rico, who builds guitars in East L.A., thinks it would make a guitar.

Introduced
1976
Type
Solidbody electric
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

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The short version

  1. 1969

    Through the body

    Bernie Rico builds his first heelless neck-through in East L.A.

  2. 1976

    The Mockingbird

    Rico’s shop brings the new shape to life, in birdseye maple or koa.

  3. 1976

    Aerosmith

    Joe Perry is photographed backstage with a natural Mockingbird.

  4. 1978

    The long horn

    Rico stretches the top horn so the guitar balances better on a strap.

  5. 1989

    Rico steps back

    After a late-’80s quality crash, he licenses the name and retires.

  6. 1991

    “You Could Be Mine”

    Slash plays a Mockingbird in the video.

  7. 1994

    Handmade again

    With the license expired, American handmade B.C. Riches return, Mockingbird Supreme included.

  8. 1999

    Rico dies

    Bernie Rico dies on 3 December.

Side A

A1

A doodle in a music store

Most guitar shapes come out of a factory drawing office. This one, by most accounts, came out of a bass player doodling in a music store in Whittier.

Johnny “GoGo” Kallas was drawing himself a custom bass, somewhere around 1975 or ’76, and Bernie Rico thought it would make a guitar. Rico’s own memory involved a napkin, and nobody has settled who drew what. Either way, it was somebody’s drawing, and in 1976 Rico’s shop made it real.

That’s a big jump. Plenty of people draw guitars. Very few get to see one built.

A2

Bernie Rico’s aviary

Bernardo Chavez Rico built guitars in East L.A. By 1969 he had a neck that ran all the way through the body with no heel, so your hand could slide right up to the top frets without bumping into a joint. He put birds on it: a Seagull in 1971, then an Eagle.

The Mockingbird was the next bird, and the name wasn’t random. Neal Moser, who designed the electronics, had a circuit that could make one guitar sound like many. A mockingbird does the same trick.

A3

Short horn, long horn

The first ones had a short upper horn. In 1978 Rico stretched it, because the guitar balances better on a strap that way, and collectors have called the two versions Shorthorn and Longhorn ever since.

They were made by hand, in East L.A. and in Tijuana, and it shows: the neck profile and the nut can vary from one to the next. By 1977 there were two grades. The Standard had an unbound rosewood board with diamond inlays. The Supreme got binding, ebony, and cloud inlays. The fancy ones were koa or figured maple, an extra hundred or two over walnut or mahogany. Inside was where things got busy. Two DiMarzio pickups, an active boost you could switch on and off, and a six-way Varitone that dialed in different voices.

One guitar, a lot of voices. That’s a mockingbird.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • 1969

    Rico’s first heelless neck-through, years before the Mockingbird put it to work.

  • 6

    Positions on the Varitone switch, part of the circuit that gave the guitar its name.

  • $100–$200

    The late-’70s extra for koa or figured maple over walnut or mahogany.

  • 1,000+

    Guitars a year the whole company was shipping by the late ’70s. Not a Mockingbird count.

Side B

B1

The sound man’s tip

Aerosmith found it through the crew. Nite Bob Czaykowski, doing sound for Aerosmith, put a Mockingbird in front of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. There’s a photo of Perry backstage in 1976 with a natural one. Rick Derringer played one live in 1977. Dick Wagner used one in the studio and on stage with Alice Cooper.

The list kept growing: Elliot Easton of the Cars, C.C. DeVille, Bruce Kulick, and Lita Ford, who owns Mockingbirds alongside her Warlocks. These weren’t guitars that looked like anything anybody’s heroes had played before. That was the appeal.

B2

The rough years

B.C. Rich grew fast. By the late ’70s the company was shipping more than a thousand guitars a year, and its serial numbers ran ahead of the calendar, so a guitar made in 1980 can claim to be from 1982. That’s one reason nobody can say how many Mockingbirds there are.

A bolt-on version arrived in 1980. Tremolos came in the early ’80s, and a Japanese-made line in 1983. By the late ’80s, under the Class Axe deal, quality went off a cliff. Rico licensed the name out in 1989 and retired. The license ran out in 1993, and by 1994 handmade American B.C. Riches were back, Mockingbird Supreme included. Rico died on 3 December 1999. The company has changed hands a few times since, and there’s still a Mockingbird in the catalog.

B3

You Could Be Mine

In the Use Your Illusion days, Slash needed a guitar with a tremolo for “You Could Be Mine.”

“I must have had my Mockingbird by then and I know I used a guitar with a tremolo,” he said, thinking back. He played one in the video too.

It’s a long way from a music store in Whittier. Somebody drew a shape for a bass he wanted, a guitar maker in East L.A. took it seriously, and fifteen years later it was in a Guns N’ Roses video. Most doodles end up in the trash. This one got a whammy bar.

Put this on

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

  1. Guns N’ Roses · 1991

    You Could Be Mine (video)

    That’s the Mockingbird in Slash’s hands. On the record itself he’s going from memory, so hold it loosely. “I must have had my Mockingbird by then and I know I used a guitar with a tremolo.”

    Watch it on YouTube

The cast

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

  • 1976

    Joe Perry

    Natural Mockingbird

    Aerosmith. Their sound man, Nite Bob Czaykowski, put the Mockingbird in front of Perry and Brad Whitford.

  • 1970s

    Brad Whitford

    Mockingbird

    Aerosmith’s other guitarist, introduced to it at the same time as Perry.

  • 1977

    Rick Derringer

    Mockingbird

    Photographed playing one live in 1977.

  • 1970s

    Dick Wagner

    Mockingbird

    An early adopter, in the studio and on stage with Alice Cooper.

  • 1991

    Slash

    Mockingbird

    The Use Your Illusion years, when he needed a tremolo. His red Warlock is a different story.

  • 1975

    Johnny “GoGo” Kallas

    The sketch

    The bassist most people credit with drawing the shape. Rico remembered a napkin.

Liner notes

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

B.C. Rich’s 1976 offset bird on a heelless neck-through — Mockingbird, not a Warlock, not a Bich, and not an Ironbird.

Body
Mahogany "Nyatoh Palaquium" neck-through with wenge stringers; quilted maple top; Mockingbird Legacy cut
Neck
Three-piece hardrock maple, Shredzilla Ultra Slim, 3+3 original headstock
Fingerboard
Indian ebony, 24 jumbo, split diamonds
Scale
24 5/8" (factory). Not the Warlock Legacy 25.5".
Pickups
DiMarzio D Activator DP219BK neck / DP220FBK bridge, USA
Hardware
Floyd Rose 1000; Grover Imperials 18:1 (factory)
Electronics
2 vol, 1 tone, 3-way, coil-tap minis, reverse phase, 5-position Varitone
Finish
Transparent (Trans Purple / Transparent Red / Honey Burst / Black Burst on factory color picker)
Nut
Locking Floyd Rose, 1.625"
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current typical = Mockingbird Legacy ST with Floyd Rose (Korea; bcrich.com, fetched 31 August 2026). Factory radius copy: "12-degree". Guitar Center also writes 12-degree, Compound, and prose 12". Mix flagged; no millimetres invented. Grover: factory Imperials; Guitar Center table Rotomatic (GC prose still Imperial). Factory cart dollar unpublished on that page. Dealer streets this pass: Guitar Center Purple $1,499.99 sold out; Sweetwater Natural Koa sibling $1,599.99. Koa factory page still showed Original price $2,900.00. STQ Hardtail is the Quad-bridge sibling on this plate, not a second slug. USA Handcrafted is a shop SKU, not this table. Mockingbird bass is not this guitar.

Construction

East L.A., mid-1970s. Bernardo Chavez Rico already had a heelless neck-through and an aviary. Solidbodies from the late 1960s; first heelless neck-through 1969 (Vintage Guitar). Seagull 1971. Eagle after the 1975 Seagull overhaul (VG). The shop’s next job was a new offset bird on that through-neck — not a Les Paul, not an Explorer, and not the jagged Warlock that would wait until 1981.

Design credit stays split. Rico recalled a napkin. Most other sources, including Neal Moser, credit bassist Johnny “GoGo” Kallas at a Whittier music store, sketch 1975 or ’76. Vintage Guitar: brought to life in 1976. Guitar World (Chris Gill, 7 March 2025): conceived 1975 when Kallas drew a custom bass; Rico thought it would make a guitar. Shipping year on this plate is 1976.

The name is Moser’s circuit — many voices — still an aviary (VG, GW). First bodies are Shorthorn: short treble horn. In 1978 Rico lengthened that horn for balance — Longhorn (VG, Reverb News, Guitar Player).

The 1976 catalog offered natural birdseye maple or “koah,” contrasting through-neck strips, stoptail (VG). In 1977, Standard vs Supreme: Standard unbound rosewood + diamonds; Supreme bound ebony + clouds (VG). Premier Guitar later names Deluxe trim.

Early hardware (GW): Grover Imperial stairstep, strap lock, Leo Quan Badass wraparound. Pickups: a pair of DiMarzio Dual Sound (Super Distortion, 4-conductor). Moser’s circuit: active preamp on/off + level, 6-position Varitone, master vol/tone, 3-way. GW: late-70s walnut/mahogany “entry” vs extra $100–$200 for koa/figured maple — historical list, not a 2026 street. Workshops in East L.A. and Tijuana; handmade variation in nut and profile (GW).

1980: Phoenix = bolt-on Mockingbird (Reverb News) — same silhouette, not a second encyclopedia object. 1981 fulcrum tremolo option. 1982 bright finishes and Series II reverse 6-in-line (VG). 1983 Kahler Mockingbird Tremolo; NJ Series Nagoya bolt-neck, simple electronics (VG).

Class Axe, late 1980s: quality crash. Rico licenses the name 1989 and retires. License expires 1993. American Handmade 1994, including Mockingbird Supreme. Rico dies 3 December 1999 (VG; Warlock plate). Hanser 2001; Praxis 2015 (VG). Warlock plate: 2019 team (Bill Xavier) per Wikipedia company page.

Serials explain the missing census. Premier Guitar (Zach Fjestad, 2012 Dallas): the company shipped more than 1,000 guitars a year by the late 1970s, company-wide; numbers ran ahead of the calendar. 1980 serials reading “82”; by 1981 off by four years. That >1,000/year is not a Mockingbird count.

Not a Warlock (1981 jagged). Not a Bich (Moser 10-string). Not an Ironbird (1983). Not Eagle, Seagull, or Widow. Not Mockingbird bass. NJ / Class Axe / later ownership eras are other factories on this name. Joe Perry’s bird is this plate.

Classic vs current: 1976–78 USA neck-through koa/maple, Badass, Dual Sound, 6-way Varitone, against the living Korea Legacy ST — nyatoh sold as mahogany, Floyd 1000, D Activators, 5-way Varitone, 24 5/8".

Players

Joe Perry (Aerosmith). Guitar World: Nite Bob Czaykowski introduced the Mockingbird to Perry and Brad Whitford while doing Aerosmith sound. GW photo: Perry backstage 1976 with a natural Mockingbird (Fin Costello). Whitford also played the model (GW). No album credits invented here.

Slash. Later Mockingbird, Use Your Illusion era — not Warlock serial 88414, which stays on the Warlock plate. MusicRadar quoting Total Guitar: “I must have had my Mockingbird by then and I know I used a guitar with a tremolo,” on “You Could Be Mine.” Live tremolo guitar; the video. Wikipedia’s company page already flags this later Mockingbird for this plate.

Dick Wagner. GW: early adopter, studio and stage with Alice Cooper. The Vintage Guitar interview he gave talks Eagle/Seagull for Cooper tours. Both stand.

Rick Derringer. GW photo: live 1977 with a Mockingbird (Ed Perlstein/Redferns).

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

Also known to play (GW laundry list, last, short): Elliot Easton; C.C. DeVille; Bruce Kulick; Kerry King (Warlock signatures live on the Warlock plate); Chuck Schuldiner (factory Stealth tribute is not this guitar). No named instruments invented for that list.

Rarity

Factory does not publish Mockingbird unit totals. None invented. Current Legacy ST / STQ / Koa are regular production (Korea). USA Handcrafted is a shop guitar, not a census. NJ / Platinum / Class Axe lines are discontinued. Shorthorn 1976–77 and early koa/maple USA neck-throughs are the scarce end. Fjestad’s year-slip is why the count is unknown, not the chapter. Celebrity objects are unique, not a vintage Mockingbird.

Value

Informal estimate, 31 August 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask vs sold labeled. Celebrity lots are not-comps. No invented medians or factory counts.

New street. Factory Legacy ST cart unpublished this pass. Guitar Center Purple $1,499.99 (sold out). Sweetwater Natural Koa $1,599.99. UK dealer guitar.co.uk Trans Red £1,599 (RRP £1,829), out of stock 6 February 2026 snapshot — still listed, still out of stock this pass. Koa factory Original price $2,900.00 still on the live Koa page.

Used modern. Named ask this pass, not a midpoint: Musician’s Friend used Legacy ST Trans Red $899.99. Reverb Price Guide widget did not print in the static fetch this pass.

Vintage / collectible. Reverb Price Guide snippet for Mockingbird Standard 1976–1987: $2,302–$5,508 based on 54 orders Good to Mint (all models on that product page) — labeled estimate, not a 2026 sold median computed here. Premier Guitar Fjestad 2012: one near-mint Supreme then valued $3,000–$3,500 — dated 2012, not a 2026 hammer. Named Reverb ask this pass: 1979 Tobacco Burst Shorthorn $7,000 (ask, not sold). Slash/Julien’s Mockingbird lots are celebrity, not a street tape.

See also

  • bc-rich-warlock — 1981 jagged metal guitar; not this bird
  • bc-rich-bich — Neal Moser’s notched 10-string; not this bird
  • dean-ml — 1977 V-plus-Explorer hybrid; another pointed silhouette, not a Mockingbird
  • jackson-soloist — neck-through superstrat, not an offset bird

Sources

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