Thread: Project BC Rich Gunslinger - What wood is this? and suggestions on finish

I reckon that the level of guitar playing (or at least the perception of it) reached such a pinacle that people were hugely intimidated by it. So along came grunge, dirty sound (I won't even call it tone) disdain for the music establishment, flannelette shirts, jeans and sneakers instead of leather and boots. Really, it was bound to happen, and was probably a "healthy" thing, but for a decade????
Bands like Metallica found themselves writing hook based songs which were instantly picked up (enter sandman) which was a little unusual for them if you compare it to their earlier stuff. Bands without that sort of flexability or fan base or a willingness to reinvent themselves shrivelled up and disappeared.
"metal" guitars like jackson and ibanez were replaced by 2nd hand fenders and gibsons. monster racks and the marshall "wall" were replaced with the "muff" and a combo.
Instead of aspiring to be Vai or Slash, people were looking at Kurt Cobain.
We guitarist are a fickle lot. There is a 7 or so year period in my music listening where I bought nothing that wasn't from bands I already knew and liked. Grunge simply ceased to exist.

Originally Posted by avengers63

I still hold a grudge against grunge. It came along out of nowhere and murdered hair metal. Grunge gave way to "nu-metal". It was 10 years before folks knew how to play their instruments again.

1992-93 was about the time I stopped listening to new music. It had to stand the test of time - about 5 years - before I'd pay much attention to it. I got better about it, but I'm still pretty picky about what new bands I get into. They MUST be able to play - like Maroon5 & Los Lonely Boys.

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i swear i thought i was alone on this subject.. im exactly the same!!! i stopped listening to music in the early 90's .. and thats where i remain! everyone says im living in the past.. hehehe.. how funny to hear someone else literally take the words outta my mouth

Originally Posted by mongrel

I reckon that the level of guitar playing (or at least the perception of it) reached such a pinacle that people were hugely intimidated by it. So along came grunge, dirty sound (I won't even call it tone) disdain for the music establishment, flannelette shirts, jeans and sneakers instead of leather and boots. Really, it was bound to happen, and was probably a "healthy" thing, but for a decade????
Bands like Metallica found themselves writing hook based songs which were instantly picked up (enter sandman) which was a little unusual for them if you compare it to their earlier stuff. Bands without that sort of flexability or fan base or a willingness to reinvent themselves shrivelled up and disappeared.
"metal" guitars like jackson and ibanez were replaced by 2nd hand fenders and gibsons. monster racks and the marshall "wall" were replaced with the "muff" and a combo.
Instead of aspiring to be Vai or Slash, people were looking at Kurt Cobain.
We guitarist are a fickle lot. There is a 7 or so year period in my music listening where I bought nothing that wasn't from bands I already knew and liked. Grunge simply ceased to exist.

again see my reply above.. same thing !!! wow i really feel like i belong here.. im hoping that well with fashion things come around again .. so im just waiting hopefully not when im 90 that hair bands or metal or rock or whatever you classify them, as pre-early 90's, comes back again.. soon so i can get on stage again and play again hehe

Every generation has the music from their youth. I recon there's no point hating whats new and glorifying that which has already been done. I recon its better to look forward to what hasn't been done before. Remember what the older generation said about the beatles in their time? Has a familiar sound to me. Regardless of the musical ability of the "grunge" era, you can't say they didn't relate to a generation, which is normally what happen in every phase of music evolution.

Originally Posted by peterbrown

Every generation has the music from their youth. I recon there's no point hating whats new and glorifying that which has already been done. I recon its better to look forward to what hasn't been done before. Remember what the older generation said about the beatles in their time? Has a familiar sound to me. Regardless of the musical ability of the "grunge" era, you can't say they didn't relate to a generation, which is normally what happen in every phase of music evolution.

yeah i know what you mean. you're right. gets to a point where it becomes a musical taste opinion. everything has to change. I just liked it better back then.. and i was only 12 .. i wasnt even allowed to go to any concerts

being 19 i have a different opinion on grunge. i never really liked nirvana much, and dont ever listen to any grunge bands (maybe occasionally sonic youth, which fit the grunge mould for part of their career).
grunge really showed people that things could be simple and still sound good. it promoted tasteful music, as opposed to technical music. im not saying that good hair metal wasnt tasteful (slash is a great player and is extremely tasteful, even if his solo's may be long, he has something to say with the guitar). the issue was that the guitarists of that era trying to sound like slash would get the technical side, but just put a big meaningless solo into the song, which wasnt a good thing. grunge emphasied the tastefulness. you need to have tastefulness before you should let loose with your shredding.

on the other hand, a "grunge" guitarist would get tasteful and then leave it at that, without somewhere interesting to go. grunge also allowed some of the other instruments to shine a bit more (bass and drums) as the guitar was less of a focus. how many people heard gnr and then decided to pick up bass or drums compared to guitar. i feel grunge is an offshoot of punk that got much bigger than it should have.

i think the real issue is the way that popular music is defined by a few styles, and doesnt offer enough of a variation. theres no reason that grunge couldnt be around side by side with hair metal, or anything else for that matter.

edit: for a bit of background, the first band i ever liked when i was 6 or so was def leppard, followed by bon jovi.

re: music & generations
I know and understand exactly wha you're talking about with this generation not liking the next's music. You're right - it does happen every time. And yes, they did reach out and touch a generation. It was unfortunate that in touching the youth of the 90's, grunge jack-slapped musicianship. Please don't mis-read this as the cliche complaints of "they can't play like WE did". Grunge was intentionally stripped down, poor musicianship, stabbing at the established virtuoso performances that were popular at the time.

For me, coming from the era of guitar acrobats (Van Halen, Satriani) inspired my the rock guitar legends (Page, Clapton), I just couldn't embrace the intentionally bland playing of grunge. It had plenty of angst, but it had no soul.

blacklab: If you liked hair metal when you were 6, then there's hope for you yet!

Originally Posted by black_labb

i think the real issue is the way that popular music is defined by a few styles, and doesnt offer enough of a variation. theres no reason that grunge couldnt be around side by side with hair metal, or anything else for that matter.

Well said, there are tracks I like (called good tracks) and tracks I dont (called "whats that effin noise!!!...") and that seems to go for all eras and styles / types of music. By naming a style marketing types have a point of differentiation which makes promotion of the music easier.

Originally Posted by black_labb

edit: for a bit of background, the first band i ever liked when i was 6 or so was def leppard, followed by bon jovi.

Sounds like you grew up in my house. Throw in some infantile air guitar to Satriani or Vai (or the wiggles) and you're it!
I love music, be it playing, composing or listening.
What I love about music is the passion in it. The passion (or obsession, there is often little difference) that went into writing it, playing it. Hell, I would love a kids recorder recital if they were giving their all I don't get that from Grunge, there is no "hair on the back of your neck" moment for me. It seems nihilistic and noisy (what older generation has never said this about the next generations music???)

If I were to be truly honest though, I would say that I am basing my dislike of "grunge" on the foundation of a few dozen songs at most. Maybe there are grunge songs out there I would like, but because they aren't "popular" or on the radio, I haven't heard them. I suspect that they were a lot more savvy than we give them credit for, they toppled the "guitar god" empire without much difficulty. It's just like Punk, or Techno or Hippies or whatever, society needs something to villify about each successive generation, and the popular music scene is no different.

Amazing how a BC Rich can stir up such a big can-o-worms, ain't it?

coming from a old rocker, grunge had a lot more to do with rock n roll -
for me the 80's was a cultural desert - i remember sitting there waiting for years for some real music

playing skill, production and presentation is all it was
kinda like a really exravagantly wrapped gift package with nothing inside
no heart n soul

grunge was sleazy dirty rebelious ugly people that didnt play that good but they sure had something- kinda like the early rockers [mid50.s]- and the early brit outfits [early 60's]

the early rolling stones and nirvana had a lot in commom

go on flame me

Nope, I agree!
It doesn't mean I like it, though...

Did any of you know that Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters fame helped pen "Smells like teen spirit"?

The other thing is I think that we collectivly, as musicains were JEALOUS that seemingly talentless (or were they just extremely smart) bunch of people that got rich and famous playing chords that we had learned in our nappies?

Think about it...

Originally Posted by black_labb

being 19 i have a different opinion on grunge. i never really liked nirvana much, and dont ever listen to any grunge bands (maybe occasionally sonic youth, which fit the grunge mould for part of their career).
grunge really showed people that things could be simple and still sound good. it promoted tasteful music, as opposed to technical music. im not saying that good hair metal wasnt tasteful (slash is a great player and is extremely tasteful, even if his solo's may be long, he has something to say with the guitar). the issue was that the guitarists of that era trying to sound like slash would get the technical side, but just put a big meaningless solo into the song, which wasnt a good thing. grunge emphasied the tastefulness. you need to have tastefulness before you should let loose with your shredding.

on the other hand, a "grunge" guitarist would get tasteful and then leave it at that, without somewhere interesting to go. grunge also allowed some of the other instruments to shine a bit more (bass and drums) as the guitar was less of a focus. how many people heard gnr and then decided to pick up bass or drums compared to guitar. i feel grunge is an offshoot of punk that got much bigger than it should have.

i think the real issue is the way that popular music is defined by a few styles, and doesnt offer enough of a variation. theres no reason that grunge couldnt be around side by side with hair metal, or anything else for that matter.

edit: for a bit of background, the first band i ever liked when i was 6 or so was def leppard, followed by bon jovi.

Well said .. honestly well said .. *sheds a happy tear* "Def leppard"

Originally Posted by avengers63

re: music & generations
I know and understand exactly wha you're talking about with this generation not liking the next's music. You're right - it does happen every time. And yes, they did reach out and touch a generation. It was unfortunate that in touching the youth of the 90's, grunge jack-slapped musicianship. Please don't mis-read this as the cliche complaints of "they can't play like WE did". Grunge was intentionally stripped down, poor musicianship, stabbing at the established virtuoso performances that were popular at the time.

For me, coming from the era of guitar acrobats (Van Halen, Satriani) inspired my the rock guitar legends (Page, Clapton), I just couldn't embrace the intentionally bland playing of grunge. It had plenty of angst, but it had no soul.

blacklab: If you liked hair metal when you were 6, then there's hope for you yet!

i didnt realise a small happy comment about my bc rich floyd rose trem and 80's hair bands that i like would open up such a discusion.

its soo true what you all said and i know this is not the forum to discuss this but out of couriosity (cant spell) does anyone still listen to "our" music like it was still alive today? i know you get people that every now and then they pull out an old record and play it..

im 30 and i still play the music with a passion like its alive today. Its true im living in the past ..

BUT as blacklab said .. theres no reason why the genre's couldnt have co-existed side by side for a healthy variation.

and to keep it official back to the original post...

i havent had time or $$ to continue my project (next step is to get pine or practice wood and play with dyes/stains and clears before touching the body) .. is it a problem for my body now in the raw wood state to just sit in the house? i have it semi wrapped in a soft white towel to cover it.. but im worried if its going to react with air over time and change color or something?? beign that im going to stain it i want to maintain what i see as it is right now.. i mean i will sand it properly again when im ready to stain or dye .. thought id ask .. thanks fellow rockers.. hehe

also just to share:

this is my first gunslinger .. soo 80's i love it its flashy and in ur face


this is my other, really nice red but same crackle finish or lepard print finish as above:


this isnt mine but ive allllllwayyyssss wanted a bc rich like this - with the patrick nagel graphic (cc deville of poison had them and by the way it was 1988 when Nothin but a good time came out and i was 10 and i saw the beginning riff on the video clip on rage and i glued my face to the tv and thought .. i wanna play guitar .. i loved the stage appearance)

but this is what i had intended for my project guitar that started this initial thread was a copy of the nagel graphic but it seems its too expensive for someone to airbrush this on (anywhere from 500-1000 bucks what a rip job) so ill leave this for when i maybe create a duplicate body and when i have money ill get it done .. then i can just add the neck etc..