Inflames626
New member
Hello all,
I'm firmly in the Jackson/ESP/BC Rich/Ibanez camp. I'm a Jackson fanatic, so occasionally BCs are a bit too outlandish for me in terms of shape. I've been quite pleased, though, with what appears to be a serious drop in price on the used market for imported BCs over the last few years.
I've noticed, however, that many Gunslingers remain pretty expensive, often retailing for $1000 or more. While I understand that any vintage or made in USA models will retail for a higher price, is there any special reason beyond whim that these tend to be more expensive?
As far as BC Rich's import guitars, I have been fairly pleased with their decrease in price and increase in quality the past few years, especially relative to the MIJ Jacksons I usually purchase, which are not bad, but they certainly don't feel as stable as some set neck designs with nicer licensed bridges than the JT580LP. A lot of the BCs are neck thru and only retail for about $600-700 or so new, which is a tough price to beat for those of us who purchase import guitars and then upgrade the pickups and hardware. Their acrylic and see-thru lines are also pretty neat.
For example, I recently picked up an MIK Warlock NJ series bass. For these to be less expensive, it came with a lot of nice features and good build quality--a smooth bolt on neck with a gloss, painted black back. Active stock pickups also came standard, as well as dedicated volume/tone controls with center detents for each split P pickup. I think I'll end up changing it to passive, but for $300 used it is not a bad bass. The only downside is that BCs tend to be prone to chipping due to all the points and the body designs are often unbalanced and result in neck drop.
All of that said, I'm sure BCs are probably vulnerable to highly cyclical used markets due to their aggressive body shapes. Then again, not every model needs to be a Warlock. I even recall pictures of Jerry Garcia using one with quite a few points on it for a hippie.
Thanks.
I'm firmly in the Jackson/ESP/BC Rich/Ibanez camp. I'm a Jackson fanatic, so occasionally BCs are a bit too outlandish for me in terms of shape. I've been quite pleased, though, with what appears to be a serious drop in price on the used market for imported BCs over the last few years.
I've noticed, however, that many Gunslingers remain pretty expensive, often retailing for $1000 or more. While I understand that any vintage or made in USA models will retail for a higher price, is there any special reason beyond whim that these tend to be more expensive?
As far as BC Rich's import guitars, I have been fairly pleased with their decrease in price and increase in quality the past few years, especially relative to the MIJ Jacksons I usually purchase, which are not bad, but they certainly don't feel as stable as some set neck designs with nicer licensed bridges than the JT580LP. A lot of the BCs are neck thru and only retail for about $600-700 or so new, which is a tough price to beat for those of us who purchase import guitars and then upgrade the pickups and hardware. Their acrylic and see-thru lines are also pretty neat.
For example, I recently picked up an MIK Warlock NJ series bass. For these to be less expensive, it came with a lot of nice features and good build quality--a smooth bolt on neck with a gloss, painted black back. Active stock pickups also came standard, as well as dedicated volume/tone controls with center detents for each split P pickup. I think I'll end up changing it to passive, but for $300 used it is not a bad bass. The only downside is that BCs tend to be prone to chipping due to all the points and the body designs are often unbalanced and result in neck drop.
All of that said, I'm sure BCs are probably vulnerable to highly cyclical used markets due to their aggressive body shapes. Then again, not every model needs to be a Warlock. I even recall pictures of Jerry Garcia using one with quite a few points on it for a hippie.
Thanks.
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