# NGD: BC Rich Mockingbird ST



## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

It just arrived today so I only played it for a few minutes lunch time to make sure everything was good to go. Pics & review to follow this evening. 

Now with pictures!


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## Bevo (Nov 24, 2006)

Those can be very nice, pics and details please!


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## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

Pics to follow tonight or tomorrow. But I can give a bit of a review after a couple of hours with the guitar last night.

First off, fit & finish are top notch. No noticeable flaws in the finish, inlays, etc. Fretwork is also top notch. Nice & polished, no rough edges or ends. This is the cleanest fretwork I've seen on an import. The action was set kind of high from the factory for my taste, but even after dropping it down there are no buzzes or dead zones anywhere on the neck. 

The playability is excellent. The ebony board is very slick & fast. Some reviews claim the neck profile is very chunky, much like a Les Paul. It doesn't feel quite like that to me. It's more akin to the slimmer necks of the early 60's SG. It is definitely rounder than an old Warlock neck I have kicking around, but I wouldn't call it "chunky" by any stretch. It's certainly beefier than a Jackson or the Ibanez Wizard profiles. For me this is a good thing - I don't like those micro-thin/flat-back necks. I'm not a shredder by any stretch so that probably has a lot to do with it.

The body/neck seem to resonate really well as guitars with Floyds go. 

The pickups were a question mark for me as I had never heard any of the Rockfields before other than sound clips on their site (and BC Rich's site also). This axe has their "Mafia" series. They're not crazy hot, between 10 & 11k, but they SOUND very hot. In fact, I'd call them somewhat muddy in humbucker mode. There's a big bottom end, a lot of mids, and a very punchy top end. That might sound like it should be a very "full" sounding pickup, but it's a little too busy. This is the first pickup that doesn't get along with my Trinity Triwatt. It's very boomy through my Traynor Custom Special 100. Through my Laney GH100TI it sounds good (almost everything does with that amp), but it REALLY hammers the pre-amp. It sounds like the amp has an extra gain stage, which is nuts considering how much drive that thing has on tap.

When tapped the pickups open up a LOT. Even with a ton of gain I think the pickups actually sound better in single coil mode. On cleaner settings they sound kind of like over-wound Fender single coils.

With the vari-tone, coil tap switches, phase switch, and pickup selector there are 60 switchable tone colors on this thing. It's a little overwhelming, but you can't say it isn't versatile.

So overall I'm very happy with it. The playability, fit & finish is the best I've seen in this price range. My only gripe is the pickups, but it may be a matter of getting used to them as they're very different from anything else I have.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

i've always loved the mockingbird. when i saw the title of your thread i made my "oh" face.
i'm totally fixed bridge kinda guy though.


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## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

Funny you should mention that. I was seriously looking at the neck-thru carved-top models with a TOM, but I wanted to replace my old MIK Ibanez RG with a new Floyd equipped axe too and this fit the bill nicely. The silly cloud inlays on the other MB's put me off a little also. This had everything I was looking for - 24-fret, neck-thru, ebony board, original Floyd Rose, and it came in transparent red...my favorite finish. I was looking at the ASM-1 also, but the 80's hair-metalhead in me led to the Mockingbird.

I also played a WMB Warbeast that felt very similar to this guitar. Didn't want to go that extreme. The Mock is still out there, but it's got a "classic" kind of vibe also.


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## copperhead (May 24, 2006)

I always been a fan of the mockingbird i own a nj classic series which i owned for about 5 years now great guitar but this winter i played one of those transparent ST with the rockfields, in a music store in fort st.john .thru a krank amp it really rocked an improvement from the older BC RICH BBSM PICKUPS .........congrats man


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## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

The very model I have. Pics now added.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

that's a beautiful axe! it probably has the best k.p.d. ratio of any guitar i've ever seen


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## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

Thanks folks. It really is a nice one!

One quick follow-up regarding the Rockfield pickups. Now that I've had some time to work with them I actually like them quite a lot. Their character is rather different from any of the other humbuckers I've used and that was throwing me a little. There's kind of a slight scoop to them with more emphasis on bottom & top end. After some knob twiddling & tweaking the guitar's setup it is sounding GREAT through all my amps. Once I figured out how to mate it with my Trinity Triwatt, even that combination now sounds kick-ass.

This was a great find and I'd recommend it to anyone.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Damn, that looks great!


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## Bevo (Nov 24, 2006)

That looks sweet, love all those switches and tones.
I have the coil tap on my Hagstrom and find I use it lots even in metal mode. It does not appear to go down to Fender single coil mode but does clean real nice.
Yours must be full of options!


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