B.C. Rich Warlock Review (2023)

Build Quality:
Hardware:
Electronics:
Sound:
Value:
Average:

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Pros:

• Lovely Lows
• Metal Friendly
• Energetic Sound

Cons:

• Lacks Sound Versatility
• Genre Specific

Alright, let’s get down, dirty, and metal about this business. The musical world was conquered by the metal sound and taken over by it a whole long while ago. Ever since then the aesthetic of the metal world has infused the guitar manufacturing world, with some manufacturers and designers embracing and making the best of the infusion. And, to be honest, I am highly enthused about it. So let us take a look at the B.C. Rich Warlock Mk1 2017 and see what this guitar is about.

Body Quality

First let’s talk about the body design because honestly, this is what is the most metal thing about the guitar. The Warlock design is highly angular, pointy, harsh and in all ways kind of beautiful. With the double-cutaway neck, angular and spiky, just like the edgy ones of us would love. It is complemented by an asymmetric reflection of the tail of the guitar. Add onto the guitar the solid black coloring, and what you get is one ugly, beautiful axe. Because the guitar kind of looks like a medieval torture weapon.

The body of the guitar is made of lovely mahogany hardwood. This tonewood is known for a lot of lovely things, the primary being the powerful effect it has on the tone of the guitar. The mahogany is known for a thick, warm low-end tonal enhancement, with the rest of the tones gaining a little bit of warmth as well. The hardwood is also known to be rather sturdy, able to withstand most damage. The only drawback to the instrument might be that it could be a little heavy because of the mahogany, but nothing a powerful, muscly metal head like you cannot handle, right?

The neck of the guitar is made of Rock Maple. I am not sure how much of a difference the rock in all of this makes, but I do know that maple is a great, sturdy hardwood for all guitar necks. Definitely capable of staying together for many years to come. The neck is bolt on, and thanks to the sturdy hardwood and expert construction, this does not lead to any problems, ever. The fretboard of the guitar is made of rosewood, the darkness of which works well with the rest of the guitar’s design.

Hardware

The guitar comes with a fixed bridge. The bridge’s design works well with the rest of the guitar and also gives the player some good action out of the strings, as well as nice string stability.

The nut of the guitar is made of synthetic material that is very similar to plastic. This allows some of the string buzz to escape while playing, but thankfully we have a full humbucker setup here.

The tuning machine is in the warlock design, which provides a great overall look to the instrument. The tuning stability is decent, though I would encourage to increase it slightly.

Electronics

The guitar comes with a full humbucker set up, as expected of a guitar created for the art of metal. The two stock humbuckers located at the bridge and the neck of the guitar are rather ok, producing a powerful sound and cleaning out most of the string buzz. These should work great for any beginner guitar player and will even serve the intermediate player well enough. Their lifetime is not too long though, so you might have to replace the humbuckers eventually.

The guitar has a fairly minimalistic control system. There is only one knob, for the volume of the guitar and a switch for the guitar pickup configuration.

BC Rich Warlock Sound

The sound of the guitar is just as dark as the look of the guitar. The warm overtones are the result of a great combination of Mahogany and powerful humbuckers. The sound is clean enough, though the guitar does lack a little bit of versatility, preferring to remain in the sustain heavy range as compared to cleaner, simpler sounds. Nothing a metalhead needs to worry about though.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a great guitar for any rock and roll and metal player looking to start out. The few problems it has will not be much of a bother for any musician with a goal in mind. Recommended, but highly genre specific.

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