Very Rare BC RICH Guitar (From Martin Miranda)
Click
for pics: (full
length) (front/back) (headstock)
(neck) (binding/rosette)
(back) (sides)
(bottom side) (inside)
(case)
What makes this guitar so rare? Two things, one it’s an original BC Rich acoustic and second it is the guitar that Bernie Rico was building on the day he passed away…
I had known Bernie since the mid ‘70’s when the family was primarily building acoustic guitars. The family tradition of building beautiful hand crafted guitars continues with his son, Bernie Rico Jr.. Bernie Sr. and I becoming friends when I started to sell his amazing instruments in the ‘70s and we continued through the various versions of BC Rich. When I left VALLEY ARTS in ’92, Bernie Sr., I and a friend of ours Taka Yamada, worked on several International projects. We were letting people know he had the name back and was building again. I had always wanted one of his acoustics because they were so amazing and rare so I gave Sr. some wood that I had acquired and he began the project at his leisure working as time allowed. When word came Sr. had passed, I called Jr. and asked him to ship me the project, and this is when I found out that Sr. had been working on it that very day. Jr. sent me the guitar and I decided not to finish it and keep it the very way that Sr. hands had last touched it.
The beginning of this guitar actually goes back to the ‘80s when I acquired the sides and back of *solid* Birdseye maple that are now over 125 years old. The top is from a Guild D-70, this is rare in itself being Guild didn’t sell parts of their guitars. VALLEY ARTS was the largest independent Guild dealer on the west coast at the time and since I was the General Manager they did me this favor. The neck is highly flamed maple I acquired during the building of the original VALLEY ARTS GUITARS.
As you can see the guitar is close to completion, needing only the finishing process to be completed and bridge to be added. This can be done but there is something special in knowing that this is how Bernie Rico left it….
After years of it sitting in
my closet and only showing it to a few close friends, I decided to offer this
guitar to the BC Rich community. Please
contact me with questions and offers. This
rare guitar will come with a letter from me explaining the special circumstance
of this guitar.
Sincerely,
W. Martin Miranda
Ph: 518.330.5447
