B.C. Rich USA Gunslinger 1987-88 Purple and Black

Nitro always shoots straight . . .

First, I’ll give you the bad news so if something is a deal killer, you don’t have to spend more time on the listing . . .

Second, I’ll give you the good news about the item . . .

Next, I’ll give any brief commentary on the item and any history I know, speculate, or surmise . . . and I’ll leave you with a listening suggestion appropriate for the item . . . read everything below, look at all pictures; they are part of the description and essential for your consideration

Continental USA shipping only

THE BAD: Unfortunately, lots to list here. First, neck crack at the headstock. Missing truss rod and electronics covers. It gets better, the previous owner had a perfectly nice early USA BCR Gunslinger and, apparently, thought the angled pickup was a bad form factor so he took his screwdriver, chisel, or broken cervesa bottle to re-install the pup square to the trem, with appropriate extra screw holes for this mod, actually several. Seems he couldn’t get it right, so back to the original angled position it went. There’s more, not satisfied with the stock trem, he dropped a different one in there but . . . oops, the block wasn’t deep enough. Re-install the perfectly good stock trem? Oh no, back to woodworking he went chiseling out the trem cavity so the springs, almost, didn’t scrape the body. Lastly, the action is what polite folks would describe as crap. No case, no bag. lots ‘o chips, dings, scratches, etc. Other than that . . .

THE GOOD: It is an early USA BCR Gunslinger. Indications of it being an early one include the low B0836 serial number. Yes I know about the “randomly grab a plate from the box,” and, yes, the numbers don’t nail down a date but this is one of the lowest I’ve owned and all my others in that range were very early STIIIs/Gunslingers. Recessed front strap button and recessed trem/electronics cavity routes were quickly abandoned with flush mount covers when the production numbers of superstrats BCR was putting out increased substantially. Oh, the trem cavity cover isn’t missing, it never had one; check pics, they didn’t drill the body for that cover.

Pretty cool PURPLE and black paint job. Note, I took pics outside in direct and indirect sunlight, and indoors with different lighting and could not capture the color quite right. It is NOT red and black, or pink, or sorta purple, it is PURPLE and black. The purple has a very subtle gradation from the front to back of each stripe. The only pic that kind of gets the color right is the one looking down the neck from the headstock (pic 8) and to some extent the first body-front pic.

There is a headstock crack but, wood is wood and can be tidied up if desired. Crack is behind the locking nut so it will still hold tune. Gunslinger necks have a distinctly different feel/profile compared to same era STIIIs and many prefer the Gunslingers.
New strings installed, '9s

Truss rod works; not a lot of fret wear.

Real Grover tuners.

The pickup is a wax-potted “MOTHERBUCKER.” Couldn’t find a pick of this one on the net but a couple manufacturers seem to have used that name.

The Floyd Rose licensed low pro trem looks clean, like it didn’t get much use. Includes trem bar.
Commentary:  Not much info other than the above, I've had it about 15 years and haven't done anything with it.
ADD ME TO YOUR SAVED SELLERS, LOTS MORE COMING!!

Suggested listening for this one is easy, 29x the Pain by the greatest living RnR songwriter, Ginger Wildheart; listen on tha tube at “THE WILDHEARTS - 29 x The Pain”