Im a big fan of todays music industry and the almost limitless amount of options one has to create music, but there are a few areas where my devotion holds true to one specific product. A lot of players prefer to explore different sounds they can achieve by switching guitars every now and then, and there are others such as myself who utilize one guitar to do the job.
The genesis behind my love for this company started with the music video for one of my favorite Guns N’ Roses songs, You Could Be Mine. The video held my attention at first because of its relation to the bad ass flick Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but it wasn’t until I laid eyes on the red mockingbird that Slash was playing when my jaw dropped to the floor.
I was only a drummer at that point, and never picked up a guitar, but I swore from that moment on if I ever became a guitar player that I would be playing that same guitar Slash was playing in the video. A couple years later I borrowed my brothers acoustic guitar which had no brand Id ever heard of, and all it said on the headstock was “Carlos”. I started by teaching myself how to play “Pull Me Under” by Dream Theater, and soon started craving an electric guitar under my fingers.
Not long after that I was better trained at playing guitar, and started playing in small local bands here and there. It wasn’t until I joined an industrial metal band named SIKS, when I started taking my playing seriously. The first guitar I purchased was a BC Rich, and I never looked back since. Its body style was all its own, and there was nothing else on the market that looked anything like it.
Over the years Ive come to respect BC Rich for their devotion to what they believe in, a quality I always try to uphold with my own life. They don’t waver to trends, and set standards that others try to follow. It was around 2007 when I first got in contact with some reps from the company about gaining endorsement, something I hardly thought was possible, but I was still curious. Long story short, I didn’t have enough exposure to gain endorsement.
Years went by and I was lucky enough to gain a bit more exposure in the music community, something that proved much harder without having the ability to tour and greet people first hand. I decided to get in touch with the same contacts at BC Rich, and see if Autumns Eyes would peak their interest now that there was a larger audience. To my shock and surprise, they agreed to endorse me as an official artist.
Lots of musicians seek endorsements solely for the purpose of getting free or discounted merchandise, which is completely understandable given the average musicians salary these days. However, with BC Rich it was quite a different experience for me. I wasn’t interested as much in any of the perks towards having an endorsement other than the fact that I could proudly represent the company I have devoted my entire guitar playing career to over the years, and do so on an official level.
I don’t ever foresee myself changing brands in the near or distant future, and I will continue to recommend BC Rich till my heart stops beating. Even then you would still be hard pressed to find me losing interest in their guitars. If there ever was to be an actual zombie apocalypse Id be the easiest one to spot, as the only way you’d separate me from my mockingbird is to rip it from my cold, blood stained, flesh ripping hands.
