Upgrading a BC Gunslinger retro

[jclogston]

Re: Upgrading a BC Gunslinger retro

Duncan Distortion? It's what I would do if i were to buy that same guitar...

[Ibanez]

Re: Upgrading a BC Gunslinger retro

Hi all. I'm new to this forum but I think I can help out with this topic. I bought a BC Rich retro gunslinger quite some time ago. Straight out of the box was a big disappointment. It was poorly setup and the finish on the body was a letdown. That aside, it looks awesome. The guitar came with a Duncan Designed pickup and a very crappy volume pot. The tone was awful to say the least. I shoved a TB-6 distortion in it with a massive letdown again ( not the pickups fault, just wrong for this guitar). The tone was too raspy and very trebly and just a wall of nasty sound. I pulled the TB-6 and swapped the ceramic magnet for an Alnico 5. I swapped the stock 500k volume for a 250k linear push/pull and coil tapped the pickup. Now I like what I hear. The pickup is now essential a JB and the 250k pot tamed the highs a bit more giving me a tone I can live with. My experience with this guitar would lead me to push people away from fitting a distortion pickup but go for something a little tamer that can give you a bit more balance. Remember this guitar is Basswood with a maple neck and fingerboard, it's going to be shrill.