In Seagull and earlier accoustic period (~1975), there are 6 digit S/N. YMMNNN. NNN means production number. 508112 means 75 August 112th model. After 1976, hand made in U.S.A B.C.Rich had been marked 5 digit serial number that was begining from 76000. 76000 means 1st built in 1976. In early days, B.C.Rich manufactured less than 1000 pcs. of guitars per year, however in late 70's, at most 2200 pcs. of guitars are manufactured per year. So, this 5 digit is not available over the 1000, the year digit went faster than real age. The 87688 Mockingbird was built in 1983. The 82369 Mockingbird was built in 1979. The 80219 Eagle had been puchased in 1978. The Record is avalable from B.C.Rich(but I couldn't get them ...).

All serial number are unique thru all models( Eagle, Mockingbird, Bich and Bass guitars). There are no same serial number guitars between different models. The bass guitars are 15% of all Rich.

There are known birthdays as follows.

77438 1977/10/13
80219 1978 (purchased)
82369 1979
82744 1st 1980
83100 1980/6/26
83242 1980/8 (Purchased)
83345 1980/8/13
83605 1980/9/25
83684 1980/10/21
83755 1980/10/23
83765 1980/10/24
83901 1980/11/25
83924 1980/12/3
83966 1980/12/12
84213 1981/1/29
84626 1981/4/14
84935 1981/8/20
85542 1st 1982
85612 1982/1/21
86194 1982/6/18
86742 1982/11/17
86986 1983/1/21
87688 1983
88151 1984/1/18
88273 1984/2/29
88907 1984/8/31
89570 1985
90248 1987/6/1
90444 1987/6/1
1989 to1993: Class Axe
94004 1994/11/16

Here is the production information per each year (Special thanks to Mal Stich).

1976:300 guitars. Moved from Bernardo's Guitar Shop on Brooklyn Avenue to Valley Blvd and became B.C. Rich Guitar Company.
I1977: 500-600.
1978 : 60 guitars per month.
1979 :100 per month.
1980 :120 per month.
1981 to 1984: 7 guitars per day, or 35 per week,worked 48 weeks a year. 35 * 48 is 1,680 per year.

There maybe between 10,500-11,000 guitars from that period you guys call The Golden
Years of B.C. Rich.

In this term, so many handmade B.C.Rich guitars were sold to Hollywood Music Store in L.A and Tokyo Japan (owner: Hiro Misawa). This is the reason why so many "Special" vintage B.C.Rich guitars are in Japan.

Some old guitar shop have a mistake to show their birthday. They're thinking 81xxx was made in 1981. The real age is about made in 1978.