Pickup for a BC Rich Bich

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Offline Aceman

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Pickup for a BC Rich Bich
« on: August 01, 2020, 09:56:15 AM »
Currently shopping a bit for an NJ Classic BC Rich Bich.

This is a simple double hum guitar with vol/tone/switch, but I am going to wire in classic excessive BC rich fashion.  An obvious choice would be a SuperD and Super 2 in the neck, with split/parallel, phase etc...I can always do that and be super happy.

But what are some other more modern choices of sounds I might do?  It must rock hard in series mode!



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Offline HarlowTheFish

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Re: Pickup for a BC Rich Bich
« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2020, 08:58:15 AM »
I'd say maybe consider something a bit clearer/more modern - if you're shoving a bunch of BCR-style preamps and switches and crud in there, having something with a bit extra treble will get you more versatile results. Something like the Transition set (if you want a bit more output) or Air Classic (for a something a bit more vintage) would be my picks, personally. The Super D/Super 2 set that BCR used back in the day is a classic, but I think with all the electronics it ends up sounding a bit congested, and might benefit from something that was designed with driving a bunch of effects and switching as a consideration.

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Offline Aceman

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Re: Pickup for a BC Rich Bich
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2020, 08:04:53 PM »
Good call....less is more with boost etc...

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Offline HarlowTheFish

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Re: Pickup for a BC Rich Bich
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2020, 10:47:19 PM »
Especially if you're going for a more vintage-style preamp instead of a newer kind - those have some character of their own, and if you add something high-output and with a really specific sound ala Super Distortion, they get nasally and odd. I do really dig the vibe of the old BCR preamps, or something like the Bartolini Vintage preamp (the guitar one, not the bass one), so letting them pull their own weight IMO pays off.

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Offline Aceman

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Re: Pickup for a BC Rich Bich
« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2020, 10:15:05 PM »
Yeah - onboard preamp would be nice.  Do you have any specific current suggestions?

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Offline HarlowTheFish

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Re: Pickup for a BC Rich Bich
« Reply #5 on: August 17, 2020, 03:43:24 PM »
Bartolini does both a vintage-style one (so it'll have a bit more character) and a more modern one (which should be more transparent) that are for guitar - boost only, just output, so no EQ. They're a bit hard to get your hands on, so you might have to reach out to them and see if they can hook you up. I actually dig the vintage-style one a lot, a buddy of mine had one in an old axe of his, and it's really nice as a lead boost or, surprisingly, for jazz - warm and fat, without killing your treble response or making it too pokey.

Other than that, the Seymour Duncan Blackouts preamp is kinda finicky in that it's always on, but if you're hooking it up to its own dedicated pot for volume control, you could switch to it (though you'd need a DP4T switch to route all the cables - it needs all 4 conductors from your pickups to work properly. It's really good for riffs, has a bit more attack and aggression compared to an all-passive circuit with the same pickups, but doesn't give you a lot of flexibility - it's either on or off, and is more coloring than flexible like you'd traditionally find in a BCR.

If neither of those strikes your fancy, or if you want proper EQ, your best option is either building your own pedal-style preamp, cannibalizing an existing pedal, or finding a smaller pedal builder who can do that for you - if you're going that route, I recommend something that has clean gain but not a lot of clipping (if you want more control and boost ability, but not a lot of extra stuff in your signal) or something that tops out at Blues Driver/Tube Screamer levels of gain so it's a bit more manageable and doesn't require a second pot to have independent output/gain controls.

You could also dig around Reverb/Ebay to find an old BCR or Carvin preamp or something similar (sounds nice and authentic to the build, but can be a pain to wire, and the Carvin is meant to be always-on and needs 5 knobs - volume, tone, active treble, active bass) or go with a Fender midboost or something like that (though I'm not a huge fan of these because IMO they can get congested and too nasal, though for some people just having the mid push is nice).