LONG AWAITED PART 2 OF THE STRATIFICATION OF B.C.RICH “The Stratification of B.C. RICH” - Part II[/b] The ST-III has now passed from idea, to actual product. I’m actually relieved, and excited. I love this guitar and I consider myself hard-to-please, even about my own work. I’m especially pleased with how the body & headstock look together. It’s all about proportions, balance, angles and the visual relationship between the two. Some people just look at the body shape & may think that a “strat is a strat” but those people would, of course, be wrong. Much of what makes a guitar great is usually not something you would see in a photo. What drove a lot of interest in those 80’s Charvel strats was that they were Strats with Humbuckers & Floyds. Up until that time, most strat-shaped guitars were still outfitted with 3 single coils and a Fender tremolo that jumps out of tune if you look at it wrong. Floyds changed everything for hard rock guitar players. Some guys, like Edward Van Halen and Steve Vai, could make their Floyds actually speak, it seemed. It was a different sound perfectly suited for hard rock and, at that time, hard rock was king. The ST-III needed to fill the role of a well-made strat, with humbuckers and a Floyd. If it worked at Charvel, I figured it’d work at BCR. As every musician knows, art & creation must ultimately make way for business; the selling of the art. But for BCR, this was also about getting money coming into the company & the sooner the better. I decided to follow a familiar path to the marketing aspect. So the first ST-III’s didn’t go to the public or to Guitar Center. (The first one actually went to me … duh) Next on the list was artists. The ST-III gave me the tool I needed to establish BCR as a legit “strat company”. The chain reaction plan was like this: I like it, artists like it, Dealers like it, customers like it. I was now only 25% of the way there. I was confident. I needed that confidence to approach rock stars who themselves are usually confident people. Getting artists was more important that getting dealers, at this point. Dealers will almost always choose to stock a line of guitars that has a good group of endorsees. The BCR name was known around guitar shops, but the words “BCR” and “strat” had never really been used before in the same sentence. To most dealers at the time, BCR was strictly a hard rock, metal brand whose most distinct characteristic was their unusual body shapes. With the poor sales of the original “ST”, the pressure was that much greater to now succeed with another new, BCR strat attempt. Many people know right away if they like a guitar the minute they first pick it up and put a left hand on the neck. But many people equate “good” with “familiar”. That’s why the ST-III had to have some Fender Strat characteristics. There was also hardware, electronics and appearance. An attractive appearance might catch your eye, but at the end of the day, appearance eventually comes in second to function, tone & reliability. For touring professionals, this is not “just” a guitar. This is a tool with which they make their living, sometimes playing 75 cities in 85 days. Performance & reliability is everything. It’s also about “feel” with a guitar. I actually I had my own theory: Gibson guys were more, “stand & play” and Fender guys were “neck grabbers” who were more physical with the guitar. To make pro’s happy, our strat also needed to be tough. It needed to be tour-worthy. Naturally, custom-making a prototype over a longer period of time is relatively easy, compared to making many ST-III’s per day. And, add to that ,each guitar could be ordered with about 15 options. Even for a hallowed, custom guitar shop, particularly one that was 95% “neck thru”, it takes focus and attention to detail to keep it all straight, make every one right, maintain the quality and do it all on time, 5 days a week. Ross was largely responsible for keeping production model ST-III’s up to spec. His job was to turn a group of talented workers into a lean, mean, bolt-on guitar makin’ machine. Bernie always seemed to look at things in the context of how his Dad had done them or how BCR had done them in the 70’s. Ross & I always thought in terms of what could be done, more than what had been done. So on the rare days that Bernie would be in the shop talking to workers, Ross would usually come find me. Ross would ask me to find something for Bernie to do in the front office, because he was driving him & the guys in the back crazy, suggesting techniques that Ross did not want his guys to learn. Bernie was like a chef coming into the kitchen after the meal was already cooking. So as we prepared to make the first few guitars for artists to see, Ross had to ensure they came out as designed, utilizing a staff of workers who were masters of the neck-thru but much less practiced on bolt on’s. Much of what needed changing at BCR was the culture. Bernie used “Strat” as a 4-letter word and while he’s certainly entitled to his opinion, to a marketing person, refusing to acknowledge the overwhelming success of bolt-on guitars at that time, was not very business-like. I knew the ST-III would never get any second chances or favors from Bernie. It would have to impress and then pay for itself; and quickly. It was important to change a little of the way BCR workers approached the concept of strat building. You hate to walk into a company and tell everyone to change what they’ve been doing. But this was not about the war tools anymore; they were already established and nothing needed changing. This was about diversifying, building onto the war tool legacy to become a great builder of guitar bodies and necks that would fit together like a hand in a glove. Fortunately, Jose & the others in the woodshop were true pro’s. They adjusted right away & had a good grasp of the concepts behind mass producing bolt-on’s. Like C/J, a lot of the success a guitar company will have is directly proportional to the quality of their woodshop. Ideas and concepts are important but they don’t mean a thing if that isn’t eventually translated into wood. Moving to the office, I redesigned the BCR order forms to be like the ones JoAnn Jackson had designed for Charvel. (JoAnn was so smart and knew more about baseball than any girl Id ever known) Their design would make it easier for sales people to write up custom orders that ensured all options were detailed properly and that the shop guys could later interpret without mistakes. We explained to some of the older workers in the wood shop that, now, the shape on the back of the neck would not always, necessarily, be the same. Also, it would not be the same neck shape they’ve been putting on Warlock’s & ‘Birds all these years. ( I showed them an old “ST” neck and said, respectfully, this was no longer a BCR bolt-on neck) I gave everyone an overview of what the guitar was supposed to be. But this was BCR, so most of the core woodshop guys had been there for many years. They could do anything, so I just wanted them to know what the ST-III was supposed to be. And what it was supposed to be was “not a War Tool”. Our sales guys, mostly guitar players themselves, started talking up the ST-III on the phones. Having anything new from BCR gave them something to talk about, especially because it wasn’t a dressed up, reissued “war tool”. But we all knew that it would take more than phone calls to create a demand for ST-III’s . Comfortable with production, my focused returned to finding artists to play them. I got an early ST-III into the hands of a great guitarist who was also a great friend; Vivian Campbell, then of DIO & later of WHITESNAKE and DEF LEPPARD. I trusted Viv. I already knew what he liked so we built one close to those specs. It only took 1 day before he called me. He loved it. He was also comfortable working with me again, now at BCR. He signed a 2-year endorsement deal. We did a photo shoot with Viv and got it into magazines. The ST-III had it’s first top-level endorsee & we were on our way. I signed 2 other artists that also went on to give great credibility and exposure to the ST-III. Regarding artists, Bernie & I had an understanding. If I wanted to sign any artist, I could do it without asking him. I had to have that freedom & Bernie, wisely, allowed me that. It worked out well because he doubted me when I signed TONY MACALPINE and the guitarist of a new, upstart band here in LA, C.C. DeVille of POISON. ( I also signed POISON bassist Bobby Dahl) These guys were among the first to use the ST-III and gain valuable exposure for this new BCR strat. POISON, alone, kept BCR’s on MTV 24/7. Tony, with such great guitar playing skill, gave the ST-III instant credibility to the more discerning guitar players. They each helped enormously in getting the ST-III out of El Monte and out on tour. To me, this artist acceptance meant we’re now 50% of the way there. Next up was the dealers. Artist Relations is a marketing function, who’s purpose is to use the magnificence of the artist to create a demand for our products while also building a mutually-beneficial relationship with the artist. We’re now building the guitars they like and they are doing some things for us. So now, we’re looking for BCR dealers across the USA, Europe and Japan to sign on by placing some orders. But BCR dealers took a little more time. They had put up with a lot lately. Many of the older, more established retailers had long-held opinions of BCR and Bernie, that would not easily be changed. The uniqueness of the “war tools” was certainly classic, but somewhat dated, and with narrower appeal. The original, ill-fated “ST” had left dealers yawning so to now ask them to get on board with a new strat was going to take some work. But many of the biggest BCR dealers, Guitar Center & Sam Ash Music in particular, were also the biggest dealers for C/J, Ibanez, Kramer & Fender. This was good & bad. They knew me & my background, but they also already had cool strats on their store walls. Some dealers only carried BCR because of the “war tools”. But dealers are reactive people; if enough people come in and ask for something, they will start to stock them. Again, the power of artist relations proves itself. Artists can sometimes accomplish in a short time what would take basic print advertising in magazines years to do. Sooner than expected, good things started to happen. The fact was, this was not your father’s BCR and the ST-III was the proof. This was a Charvel strat with a BCR headstock & logo. Most had oiled (never lacquered) maple necks that felt great in your hand. And, they had nasty humbuckers and perfectly-mounted, Floyd Rose tremolos. You could see the dealers coming around. They knew that the ST-III had a C/J pedigree and they liked that. But also, the ST-III had now made BCR a more complete LINE of guitars, affirming my original point to Bernie that a good strat would only complement the BCR legacy. BCR dealers bought a lot of ST-III’s and even the “war tools” got a sales boost. BCR was getting cool; again. We were now hiring more workers including some guys we’d known at C/J. BCR was back & one sure sign of success was the lack of parking spaces at the shop. I kind of missed the days that I could park just outside our front door. Of course, like most humans, I took an occasional moment to feel good about myself. I was gambling not only with my own career, but also with BCR’s name & future. But I always knew there was risk for both in what I was doing. I’m certain that if the ST-III had sucked, I would have heard all about it. But of course, as things played out, the old saying would prove true: “[i]A bad idea is an orphan, but a good idea has a thousand fathers.” [/i] The ST-III was selling well. It helped make BCR relevant again. It caused the ever-valuable, unable-to-be-purchased buzz BCR really needed to put a fresh face on an older, some felt ,quirky brand. The ST-III made BCR seem a little more mainstream and a little less “hardcore” without diminishing the contributions the “war tools” had made to the BCR legacy. Along with that, the ST-III’s affect on the company bottom line was so clear; the money was coming in again also. I was happy that some new guys now had jobs. It was surpassing even my expectations. All considered, I believed I had provided services to the company above and beyond normal expectations. It seemed more than fair to ask Bernie for a piece of the action; a royalty. Of course, I could have reminded Bernie that he had predicted doom for trying to make BCR a strat-maker, but he already knew that he’d been proven wrong. I remember telling myself not to gloat, but to approach Bernie with humility & the message that I had other good ideas I wanted to try next. One day, I had a long talk with Neal Moser about my wanting a royalty. Neal was not around much when I first started at BCR but I always liked Neal and enjoyed having him & NJ (Neal Jr.) around now so I could ask him lots of questions. Neal shared with me some of his experiences with Bernie about the BICH. It did not work out as Neal had hoped. He chose his words carefully but I could tell that it was a sore subject. I could tell that he was not happy with the way Bernie had dealt with him. He told me to use a lot of caution and to expect resistance. Bernie apparently had publicly claimed to have helped design the BICH, but I always heard it was Neal. I was puzzled why a legend like Bernie would even WANT to claim otherwise. Then I found out. Bernie never had any intention of telling the world that David Williams designed the ST-III. His experience with Neal taught him something. He knew that the world would automatically think he designed the ST-III, and many probably did; maybe even some of you. Bernie smiled a lot and grudgingly acknowledged to me that the ST-III was doing well, but he declined to pay me a royalty. The way he squirmed in his seat and did not make eye-contact with me also spoke volumes. I walked away not just disappointed that a good job was going unrewarded, but also that the legend could not admit when he was wrong. I was shocked when I would now hear Bernie at NAMM and on phone calls telling people that he was responsible for the ST-III. At first, I thought he was joking. But he wasn’t. I actually heard him tell a guy at NAMM that he “saw the need” to build a better strat. Dealers would come up to him and congratulate him on the ST-III and Bernie, who loved nothing more than a good ass-kissing, was taking in every drop. He never once introduced me as the creator of the ST-III project nor did he give me props in any magazine articles or interviews; quite the opposite. Bernie made extra efforts to make sure others never knew the actual story of how the ST-III got it’s name, or how it came to be. (I remember thinking that I should have named it something else) I had admired Bernie so much that this really began to bother me in a weird way. But it would have been easier to deal with if I was being paid accordingly. But this wasn’t just about fair compensation; it was also about appreciation & respect. I thought of my friend, Jake E. Lee, a great guitar player who, for 2 albums, had to deal with Ozzy. Jake had written “Bark at the Moon” but on the album, Ozzy took all the credit. I could relate. It would be different if had been like KISS. Whether it was Vinnie Vincent, Bruce Kulick or Mark St. John, at least Gene & Paul told every new, KISS guitarist up front they wouldn’t be getting any songwriting credits or extra pay. I suppose, then, with all of the attention the ST-III was getting, this was bound to happen. One day, Bernie went too far. I had designed an ad for GUITAR WORLD magazine that had 2 pictures, one each of Viv Campbell holding a Red ST-III, and Tony MacAlpine holding my White prototype. When the ad came out several weeks later, I saw that Bernie had added a line of text to the bottom of the ad, without my knowledge. It read, “ST-III designed by Wayne Charvel and Bernie Rico”. Wayne knew he had nothing to do with the ST-III. He thought it was a mistake but I was devastated. Not giving me credit or a royalty was one thing; taking credit for something you did not do was a whole ‘nother issue. No one knew better than me how resistant Bernie had been to this entire project. He was against my hiring Ross, signing Poison and he always felt the old “ST” was the better guitar. I reached a new point. I now had little choice but to see the legendary Bernie Rico in a whole new light. I suddenly saw him as a guy who used the creativity, experience and guts of others to prop up his own diminishing reputation. For me, it was like finding out that Santa Clause was an asshole. It was a blow. Ironically, Bernie was like Grover Jackson ( a person Bernie did not like or respect). Each saw themselves as the only person who should ever be recognized for anything good that ever comes from their company. They are both so insecure, they are more threatened by the success of their subordinates than they are happy with having had the good sense to have hired them. Grover once got pissed that I got an album credit from a major band & he did not. Bernie later did the same exact thing. That baffled me. You hired me to bring in & work with artists, and not only did I deliver, they were also so appreciative of the quality of help I provided them, they CHOSE to give me an album credit, All Access passes and/or credit in interviews. That should be a good thing. But, I was young & naïve failing to recognize the huge egos involved. To these guys, if you create or accomplish something while under their roof, they own it, you don’t. Blame, you can get, credit not so much. The ST-III, which I had basically staked my reputation upon, was making BCR money but I would never see an extra dime from it’s creation. I saw other employees get some love, in the form of office remodelings, new vehicles & other payoffs, but it’s like I was invisible. I also never got an “atta boy” or “good job, David”. But Bernie knew from dealing with Neal Moser that if he acknowledges the work or ideas of others in any way, those people might get some of the credit. That was not acceptable to Bernie. I did get to keep my job. I had a cool Camaro as my company car & my salary was decent, but the damage was done. The trust was gone. You can’t un-ring that bell either. Just as bad, every time I now looked at Bernie I saw, not a legend, but a man so desperate for validation, he’d disrespect, shortchange & feed off of his own top guys to get it. I really couldn’t believe it. I figured if this wouldn’t make me any more money, nothing would. One byproduct of that is that I no longer shared some ideas with Bernie, such as the “Guitool/Roadie Rench” which I invented about the same time, with Ross’ help. I had a lot of work to do now that the ST-III was out, so I just tried to ignore the frustration and focus on my job & the artists who had placed their trust in me. A few months later, Wayne Charvel called me & told me that he had just signed a new deal with Gibson Guitars. They wanted him to build a line of strats . (Gibson strats? How interesting, I thought). I was happy for Wayne. He was a good guy who had really been screwed by Grover Jackson, whom Wayne had hired away from Anvil Case back in the day. Gibson Guitars, based in Nashville, told Wayne that they also wanted to open a new Artist Relations office in SoCal. They asked Wayne who the best AR guy was in SoCal. Wayne told them to hire me. The next morning, I got a call from Gibson and after brief introductions, the first thing they said was that they would double my salary if I would leave BCR & come to work for them. I never told them how much I made so I was impressed with their approach. It all caught me off guard but I had to respond quickly if I was interested. It was very hard to even think about leaving BCR, Ross, Neal, Viv, C.C. & Bobby, Tony, Luscious Lita Ford, Kerry King and the many artists I worked with. We had built great working relationships & that trust level is hard to find in this business. I actually cared about those guys not just as players, but as people too. But I was now feeling kind of like an athlete being traded to a new team. I wasn’t sure what it would be like but it was great to feel wanted. I honestly would have preferred to stay at BCR. But, as a musician myself, and as a creative person, I just could not get past Bernie taking credit for the original works of others, apparently more than once. Now, someone (Gibson, for God’s sake) wanted me & was willing to pay top dollar. I had also concluded, after witnessing numerous examples, that Bernie was an emotional, erratic businessman & therefore the prospects for anything, for anyone, long term at BCR seemed dim. So, I took the job with Gibson. The next day, I told Ross first. I then went into his office & told Bernie I was leaving BCR. He acted all casual, like he didn’t want to give me the pleasure of having surprised him. But clearly, it caught him totally off-guard. He awkwardly congratulated me for making the big time and we parted ways about 10 days later in a civil, professional manner. I never looked back; at least for a while. Just after I left, Bernie renamed the ST-III as the “Gunslinger”. It was, of course, the same exact guitar. I’m painfully aware of why he did it, but I’ll leave each of you to connect those dots. I’m not sure what bothered me more; the lack of any decency or the gluttonous grab at attention for something he did not do, and actually opposed earlier as unneeded & a waste of time. It still makes me sad to this day. But I KNEW what happened so I set out to do it again, but this time, with Gibson. I would stay at Gibson for about 18 months before leaving them to start my own Artist Relations/Marketing company, PLAYERS INTERNATIONAL. Gibson management, to my utter dismay, was basically idiots in nice suits. Gibson is run, to this day, by a single dictator, Henry Jusckiewicz, who was less knowledgeable than Bernie or Grover but was more wealthy, more manipulative, with less scruples and a much less open-mind. Each was a narcissist. Henry mistakenly believed he knew more about everything simply because he had more money than others. Henry once told me that “artists will like what we tell them to like”. Okay, whatever, dude. He obviously was already warped by the time I got there. The people in the shop that actually built Gibson Guitars were all great people. But Gibson managers were poorly cast as the caretakers of one of America’s oldest & greatest guitar brands. I was shocked to find out how horrible Gibson’s relationships were with Chuck Berry, BB King & other legendary artists. I had to tell my immediate boss who the SCORPIONS were. (this is the late 80’s remember) I once took this same guy backstage to meet the band when RATT was in Nashville and cringed in embarrassment when he showed up wearing Hush Puppies & a sweater tied around his neck. Les Paul, himself, once told me he didn’t trust Henry but it was too late in his career to go elsewhere. I admit it; I began to think that either I have a problem with authority, or the USA guitar biz has many morons. The former is probably a little true but the latter is gospel. I decided to start Players International (PI), my own company. I called it that because sports is my other passion & I envisioned also working with pro athletes one day as well on endorsements. Sid Fernandez, an aspiring musician & (at that time) pitcher with the NY METS, had told me about how his endorsements with shoe companies worked. My first choice would have been to work endorsements FOR the artists. I TRUSTED them & they genuinely need the kind of endorsement and guitar-building help that I was uniquely positioned to provide. But “pro guitar players” don’t make the kind of money pro athletes do and their salaries are not guaranteed like baseball players. I also felt that professional musicians do themselves a disservice when trying to obtain endorsements by themselves. Their sometimes-huge management companies simply do not understand how to do it either. To most of them, a free guitar is the best guitar but, of course, to any real musician the best guitar is one that looks, plays, feels and sounds exactly like they want. As I would tell them, free crap is still crap. I wanted to work FOR the artists because their pursuits, to me, were more noble, more clear. I could “relate” to artists, because as people, I was more like them. But I had gained a very unique skill set & I wanted to make the best use of it. Artists want a good guitar, whereas guitar companies want more money. Particularly with professional, touring artists, they need a guitar company relationship they can rely upon, not just one willing to give them a couple of free guitars. My thought was to sign artists to my company & then I would be working for them. I’d represent them to several guitar companies and let them CHOOSE the best deal for their situation. My plan was to then help manage their endorsement relationships and oversee the making of their personal instruments. I think I just trusted the artists more now, even though the general public will rarely agree that a rock star is generally more trustable than a big company. But I had experienced otherwise. At this point, I trusted Viv Campbell, Tony MacAlpline, Lita Ford, Jake E. Lee, Kirk Hammett, Kerry King & several other “rock stars” far more than I trusted Bernie, Grover or Henry. I wanted to help musicians. I even sat down with Dick Clark Productions once to discuss my creation, the “American Musician Awards”. (they told me no one in America cares about musicians) I had big plans for PI, but without a huge bankroll to get it off the ground, I just stayed with having guitar & amp companies as clients to start, because they had the money, needed what I offered and could start right away. With PI, I just decided to just have guitar companies as clients, not as bosses. I didn’t trust my future to any of them or anyone else that must step on others to get where they are. (how naïve am I ?) Kind of surprisingly, Gibson agreed to become my first client. I would later add Ibanez, Mesa/Boogie, Guild, Randall, Schecter and a French guitar company I loved, Vigier Guitars & others. I was also working more on the Guitool/ROADIE RENCH, which was now selling all over the world. Prior to 1996, it was the Guitool. We had licensed a guy from Oklahoma named Bill Rich to make the tool for us & handle the sales. But we later became suspicious that he, also, had been screwing us. We sued him, settled out of court and did a complete redesign of the Guitool, which we renamed the “Roadie Rench” in 1996. Four years after I left BCR, Bernie (IMO), with help, had mismanaged the company back into debt & lackluster sales. Ross & others had long left the company. Again financially desperate, I think Bernie had little choice but to license the BCR name to Randy Waltuch and his company Class Axe, in Warren, NJ. Randy asked Bernie about artist relations people. Bernie, to my surprise, recommended to Randy that he should hire my company to do AR for BCR. I flew to New York/New Jersey to meet Randy & his beautiful wife. Things went well & for the second time, I was working with (but not for) BCR. Randy, a big, likeable guy who’s Wall Street-Broker Dad purchased the company for him, loved guitars and the biz, but as we all know, that’s usually not enough. Randy would eventually get out after a couple more years mainly because New Jersey just could not capture the guitar-making magic that S. El Monte had done before. Also, I think the public just could not grasp how a longtime, SoCal guitar company could suddenly be transplanted to NJ, and have it stay the same company. But I appreciated that Bernie had recommended me & sorry that things did not work out for Randy. As the years passed, the intensity of my differences with Bernie began to fade. I would always see him at NAMM and eventually, we became a little more friendly, although it was made easier because he was no longer my boss. But I had always liked and admired Bernie & that’s why it all cut so deep in the first place. My opinions of Bernie were of Bernie’s own making. But after enough years had passed, I’m just not the kind of person to make it a lifelong thing. Eventually Bernie would even call me to ask about an artist matter or other stuff. I started to sell BCR apparel on my e-commerce web site, MusicianWear. Bernie & I never spoke about the ST-III, Gunslinger, etc. At that point, it would have served no constructive purpose. But somewhere in there, I think Bernie did respect me & what I had done, even if he did not/could not/would not acknowledge it, openly, to others. We both had moved on and, a decade later, it actually progressed to the point where we’d now hug every time we saw each other. Time really does heal wounds. I was glad to be friends with him again because we had gone through a lot together and we had so many stories to look back upon. Then, in 1999, Bernie suddenly and very unexpectedly died. It had meant a lot to me that our relationship had been somewhat repaired a little before he passed. His funeral was very difficult, especially when his sons, Bernie Jr. and Joey spoke so fondly, and tearfully, of their dad. It was a strange time. Bernie was not in any apparent, failing health and he was only 58 years old. It was very sudden. I continued on with Players International and the ROADIE RENCH . Ross & I stayed in close contact for many years, but after he moved back to Texas & got re-married, we eventually lost contact, although I will always see him as a great friend who shared some USA guitar history with me. BCR has changed hands a couple of more times. Those new to the company might be surprised to even know that BCR made their name with the “war tools”. Today, any look at the current BCR web site will overpower you with Gunslingers, Assassins and Outlaws. They all look like their father, the ST-III. I also understand these guitars are the best selling BCR’s today. I’m like the artist that still hears one of their songs on the radio. I see the continuing results of work I did years ago still paying dividends decades later, but of course not for me. I just hope the nice people who currently own BCR are enjoying it all, but of course, they don’t know this story; no one does, except (now) you. Here are some basic facts about the ST-III. * it was a direct descendent of the ‘80’s Charvel strats & the Jackson Soloist * it’s success was critical in keeping BCR financially afloat in the late ‘80’s/early 90’s * it ‘s design and it’s success make it the father of all BCR, strat-style guitars you see today. * it was designed by an AR guy, not a luthier, a legend or modern software. * IMO, like pre-CBS Fender strats, or 80’s Charvels, the few, true, S.El Monte hand-made, original ST-III’s in the world are the better BCR strats of all time. * the only reason the ST-III made it to the marketplace at all was because it was a good design * the ST-III’s success was based on the Charvel strats success: Strats with humbuckers & Floyds. As I sit here typing this story, the original ST-III prototype, #0001, sits about 10 feet away on it’s stand. I used to play it a lot but after getting married in 1997, life changed & loud music was less appreciated around my house than before. So, today, it’s life consists of sitting on it’s stand, and serving as a reminder of something in my life that I did right. Despite some tempting offers, I just can’t bring myself to sell it, or it’s cousin, the first neck-thru ST-III that I also own. I’m very proud of these guitars. My only reward for conceiving them is the occasional time when someone sees my name on Wikipedia next to the model name or finds out about my role in it’s creation. I’m the only one that could tell this story and although I’m never comfortable tooting my own horn, I think it’s important that the world’s most dedicated BCR fans know the truth; the whole truth. I suppose I’m a little afraid that if I don’t speak about myself, no one else ever will. I”ve delayed writing Part II of this story partly because I’ve been very reluctant to say anything about Bernie that some fans might not be ready to hear. I’ve wrestled with how to tell this story respectfully, but more important, truthfully. It’s made harder because I know Bernie is not here to offer a different opinion, but I believe I have told this story truthfully. The ST-III will always have a part in BCR history, I suppose, as it should. The ST-III was a vision before it was a guitar. But I didn’t do it all by myself. Bernie gave me the chance, the materials and the labor. I got a lot of help from Ross Jennings and Wayne Charvel had a role. I owe a lot of thanks to Tim Wilson. I should probably thank, indirectly, Grover Jackson and his former wife JoAnn as well. I appreciate what I learned from Neal Moser, Mike Shannon, Steve Vai, Larry DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan, Billy Sheehan, Warren DiMartini, Jake E. Lee, Jeff Beck, Les Paul, Kerry King, Chris Holmes, Vinnie Vincent, Spacey T, Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield, Lita Ford, Buckethead, Shawn Lane, Stevie Ray & Jimmie Vaughan, Dan Green, Eric Johnson, Nuno Bettencourt, Alphonso Johnson, John Stamos, Dweezil Zappa, Steve Stevens, Chris Holmes, Gene Simmons, Diane White, Viv Campbell, Tony McAlpine, C.C. DeVille, Geezer Butler, Roger Glover and the many, many others who have helped me to learn more about guitars and guitar players. To each of you, the loyal and dedicated fans of BCR, your faith & your love is not misplaced. BCR has it’s own special place in the long history of the solid-body, electric guitar. BCR did things no one else would even try . BCR guitars remain, to this day, some of the most distinctive and unique guitars ever built. Your appreciation and dedication is what helps to keep the story alive. Thank you, for your ongoing love & support of BCR. I know that Bernie would tell you the same thing. Always Rock, [b]DAVID WILLIAMS[/b]
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 02:41:47 +0000
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