B.C. Rich ST-3 – 1980s – Red Crackle

This is a guitar you definitely do not see every day! When this guitar came to us, it was in extremely rough shape. Parts were missing. Things that were there were rusty or crusty or both. You would never know it to see and play this guitar now. It plays like butter and it delivers that vintage shredder sound you just don’t get out of today’s guitars.

Our expert techs put a lot of love into this guitar. First, it got a thorough cleaning. Every piece of hardware was removed and it was scrubbed and polished. The pickups were cleaned and checked. All new pots and a new switch were installed. The original tremolo had most of it’s parts, but they were so rusted that they couldn’t be used, so we replaced it with a brand new Gotoh 1996-T. It was missing a tuning key, too. So it got a fresh set of Klusons. Our shop then gave the frets a fresh level and dress to make it play even better than than it ever did.

Next, it was my turn to do some research. The low serial number is the first mystery. The best I can tell, these were Japan made guitars with some assembly (or at least set up work) being done in the states. Before BC Rich licensed their manufacturing to Class Axe, they had a distribution deal with them. That is where this guitar seems to fit. That would date it somewhere around 1987-89. The red crackle is especially unusual. The difficulty of finding other examples of this finish makes me wonder if it was a special order or something. Another clue to the age of this guitar is the combination of the plain black headstock and the 3-way switch. Earlier variations copy the USA model of having 3 switches and later models have the crackle finish on the headstock.

All of that combines to make this a very cool guitar! Vintage shredders like this don’t come along every day, especially not at this price. Yeah, it has some scrapes and dings (see the pics), but that just adds to the vintage patina of this classic axe. Everything is totally solid and this guitar is ready to rip someone’s face off! This is going to make a fabulous addition to someone’s collection! Buy it now before it’s gone!