Neon_Knightmare Posted February 26, 2005 Report Share Posted February 26, 2005 (edited) Hey everybody! Just thought I'd post some pics of my first guitar refinishing project. I actually started this about a year ago, but haven't really had the time to work on it until just recently between moving, deployments, and all other manner of assorted madness. So, withot further ado, here's a bit of background. I first got this guitar at a mall guitar shop in Marshfield, Wisconsin back in 1999. It had been refinished and rewired by the previous owner such that not only did it have the degree of visual character to which you could see every crack and ding in the wood, but the EMG Select humbuckers he had thrown in made the most pleasant buzzing noise when something doesn't touch the strings... Riiiight. I actually spent about 20 minutes playing the thing in the shop through a Johnson modelling amp. I noticed that the buzz changed tones (not unlike an ultra-ghetto Theremin) depending on which strings you touched and thus grounded out. Going from open to touching the high E and back would give an effect reminiscent of the organ at the intro to Deep Purple's "Demon's Eye." OK, so it was more than reminiscent -- it sounded EXACTLY like it with the right amount of stack overdrive dialled in. So... Yeah. We're looking at what was probably a metallic Krylon job which somehow got an amazingly clear 60 Hz buzz out of a pair of humbuckers... But it was the only B.C. Rich on the rack, it was cheap, and I was tired of my '65 Harmony Holiday. Plus I'm no stranger to soldering irons. I guess a picture is worth a thousand words, so... Here. This is the only pic of it I have from before I bombarded it with paint stripper. This was taken back in '01, and I was in Air Force tech training with a rather limited wardrobe, so NO KHAKI JOKES! You can't really see much in that picture besides the upper left point being ground off, but he never bothered with filler or primer, or probably sandpaper for that matter... The truss cover is lost to the sands of time, the other points look like the guitar took a spill from a moving vehicle onto some asphalt, and so on. I've known for a while that I wanted to keep this guitar (something about the fact the strings drew blood and I had to rewire it the first night I had it), and I definitely don't want it to look like crap any longer than it has to. Plus the scalloped fretboard just kicks ass. So, last spring, I decided it was time. I decided to start simple, since this is my first. I wanted to go with basic black, and a decal from GSR Guitars -- the "fortune teller" graphic: I also had them create a custom B.C. Rich logo headstock decal for me. Sadly, I was not yet versed in the ways of paint, and had picked up some rattle-cans of Rustoleum water-based lacquer (black and clear), along with Elmer's wood filler to fill in the grain on the guitar's plywood body. Doh. Luckily, I never got to the painting stage. I've since learned that, for my purposes, Bondo and Duplicolor will work great. That said, I've decided to go with metallic black for the body and headstock, with a bit of bright red on the upper "points" to give it that "dipped-in-blood" look. Here's a rendering I threw together in Photoshop -- picture from B.C. Rich's website. I'm obviously not using that kind of hardware. As for hardware, we're looking at a black B.C. Rich Floyd Rose "Gunslinger" trem and Q-Parts chrome skull knobs from GuitarPartsDepot.com. For electronics, I had initially picked up an EMG-Zakk Wylde 81/85 set, but wound up installing them in my Jackson (Kelly) when I realized I wouldn't be getting to this for ages. I decided to go passive instead. I got a Bill Lawrence L500XL for the bridge and a DiMarzio Virtual PAF Neck for the neck. The way I see it, this guitar's tone will have the ultimate case of split personalities. I have a Virtual PAF Neck on my Epi LP Special, and that singing tone is just so beautiful and bluesy that I will probably be putting them on everything I build from here on out. Of course, for the Bich, I was torn between a DiMarzio Megadrive and the L500XL for the bridge pickup. I'm half-tempted to get some molex connectors from Radio Shack and just build a quick disconnect in the pickup cavity. lol. So there's the "evil plan." Current concerns: - The replacement 42mm locking nut I picked up has screw holes too small for locking nut bolts -- I'm contemplating boring and re-threading them, or possibly just using Bondo to fill the holes in the neck and mounting it from the front. If I fill the neck holes, I'll refinish the whole neck in regular black, but leave the headstock metallic. The neck has its share of dings and nicks, but I'm not sure if it's serious enough to warrant full-scale refinishing. - Truss rod cover. I've been trying to make one out of plastic taken from a black plastic trashcan picked up in Wal-Mart's stationery department. I'm getting better. Heh. One of these tries... Actually, my concern on this one is the "BICH" decal. I'd like to recreate that somehow, and was considering one of those Testors model decal kits for inkjet printers. Anyone tried those? It's not getting lacquered or anything -- I can probably just stick with a coat or two of clear gloss model paint on this one. My major concern is whether it will print white. Grrr... - Rebuilding the "points" on the body. This is my first time using Bondo. Scary. I'll post some pics of the newly-stripped body pretty soon. Edited February 27, 2005 by Neon_Knightmare Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon_Knightmare Posted February 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2005 Sweeet... This is what I'm going to use for a custom truss cover decal: I got the Testors kit, and I figure that I can just use regular enamel clear coat over this stuff, since it's just going on plastic (from a trashcan, no less) anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meegs666 Posted February 28, 2005 Report Share Posted February 28, 2005 that graphic is awesome looking. please do post more pics. i cant wait to see this in progress. i love the body shape and every time i see cool shapes like bc richs on here i get excited for pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon_Knightmare Posted February 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2005 that graphic is awesome looking. please do post more pics. i cant wait to see this in progress. i love the body shape and every time i see cool shapes like bc richs on here i get excited for pics. ← Thanks, Meegs! I have a mild obsession with Celtic knotwork. I'm actually half-tempted to go back and refinish my Jackson Kelly after I'm done with this one -- there's a large chunk of wood missing from the lower left point on the body on that one. That was my first eBay guitar. I'm thinking of doing the holoflash finish on that one with Celtic knotwork all over the body. God, the planning that will take, though... Hehe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon_Knightmare Posted February 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2005 Woot, more progress. I took pictures, but I haven't downloaded them off the camera yet. I used my 1/3 sheet electric sander with some 80-grit coarse sandpaper to make daaaaaaamn sure there's no Elmer's wood putty left stuck to the body, and in the process I got an idea of questionable merit I discovered that not only did this process remove the vast majority of the dings and scratches, but it allowed me to re-shape the points on the body. Now THAT is an odd feeling -- using a sander in a fashion that feels more reminiscent of sharpening a really frickin' big knife as opposed to woodworking... God, I love B.C. Rich's designs. I think I'll build a shrine to Neal Moser when all this is over with. Ah, well -- next up... Bondo! Turns out I won't need much on the body -- just enough to cover a spot where I got overzealous with my Dremel's router attachment a year ago when I was trying to open up some space for my EMG-ZW pickups. The headstock, on the other hand... Meh, I'll post pictures. Let's just say the previous owner left the truss cover screws in there when he painted it. My attempts to remove them turned a wee bit... Destructive. Meaning I'd never used a screw remover before, and wound up obliterating one of the screws. I finally drilled a pair of 1/8" holes on either side of it, and jimmied a pair of needlenose pliers in and plucked the little bastard out. As if that weren't bad enough, a bunch of blackish crap (probably from the previous owner's attempts to remove the screws) was down in the holes, so I just drilled 1/4" holes in place of all three screw holes, and I'll Bondo these. The new truss cover doesn't *quite* use the same hole positions anyway. It's not a mistake, it's custom! Right. Well, back to work... *puts on some Slayer* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon_Knightmare Posted February 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2005 Yay, photo album time. Anywho, here are a couple of "before" pics. http://rap.midco.net/ndasilva/Images/Guita...Neck_Before.jpg http://rap.midco.net/ndasilva/Images/Guita...d_Headstock.jpg The body had been stripped already for roughly a year, and I had never quite gotten to the neck. I took those a little over a week ago. These are some plastic work I've been stuck doing... http://rap.midco.net/ndasilva/Images/Guita...Truss_Cover.jpg http://rap.midco.net/ndasilva/Images/Guita...g_Side_View.jpg I cut the truss cover myself from a piece off a plastic garbage can. As for the pickup ring, it came with my Bill Lawrence L-500 XL, but was waaaaay too high to work on that guitar. And since that pickup doesn't really fit other pickup rings too gracefully, I figured what the hell -- why not cut it down? So I mangled it with a Dremel tool and managed not to destroy it. I'm quite proud of that one I traced the height of my old bridge pickup ring along the edges of the Lawrence pickup ring, and, well, you can see what happened. This is the headstock after I stripped it and BEFORE I found out that Elmer's Wood Filler is a big no-no. http://rap.midco.net/ndasilva/Images/Guita...k_With_Gunk.jpg This is after I stripped all the crap off it and had done a little sanding on it... Note the giant holes for the Bondo. http://rap.midco.net/ndasilva/Images/Guita...efore_Bondo.jpg This is the headstock after Bondo and sanding... Ready for primer! Yay. http://rap.midco.net/ndasilva/Images/Guita...After_Bondo.jpg Now for the body shots... Er... That didn't sound right. Here's the body before being sanded at all. I'd just chipped the last of the Elmer's gunk off it. You can probably tell where. Something tells me the scratch pattern near the bottom of the body may actually be Chinese for "female dog in search of tea." Aaaaaand along come the South Park references. http://rap.midco.net/ndasilva/Images/Guita...nding_-_top.jpg This is the body after I went nuts with my 1/3 sheet power sander... http://rap.midco.net/ndasilva/Images/Guita...ter_Sanding.jpg I'd gotten carried away, and started using the sander to sharpen the edges and points... Like this: http://rap.midco.net/ndasilva/Images/Guita...t_Closeup_3.jpg Then, of course, came the Bondo stage. I used it to fill in part of the routing on the neck pickup cavity, and also to plug the hole formerly used for the coil tap switch. I also fixed two dings near the neck pocket. http://rap.midco.net/ndasilva/Images/Guita...After_Bondo.jpg Next up... Primer. I think I'm gonna have to wait until it's a little more than 20 degrees out to do that one, though, since I'll be doing all my spraying outdoors. Anyone ever used rattle cans in the cold? I know about keeping them in a bucket of warm water, but I'm curious how the cold will affect curing time and such. I'd like to wait until it's at least 40 out there... Still gotta build some manner of hanging hook for it anyway. My landlord is gonna flip when he sees this... Hehe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slabbefusk Posted February 28, 2005 Report Share Posted February 28, 2005 Is it made out of plywood? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
!!METAL MATT!! Posted February 28, 2005 Report Share Posted February 28, 2005 (edited) Iam not realy sure that's a real B.C Rich but who cares IT should be a great learning experience and It could turn out to be a deadly looking guitar! !!METAL MATT!! Edited February 28, 2005 by !!METAL MATT!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted February 28, 2005 Report Share Posted February 28, 2005 Neon, I'm a regular poster at Neal Moser's forum, you should go there someday and show us your Bich, I'm sure Neal would love to have you over there, good luck with your project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted February 28, 2005 Report Share Posted February 28, 2005 OUCH it is made of plywood.... i know this is only your first project, but you might consider building a new body for it..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnewman Posted February 28, 2005 Report Share Posted February 28, 2005 It could be worse... my first guitar was made out of chipboard (like MDF only not as heavy or strong ). 1995 or so Peavy Raptor. At least his has thin pieces of solid wood, heh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon_Knightmare Posted February 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2005 Yeah, it's plywood. I'm positive it's a real B.C. Rich -- which probably began its life as a Bronze series and was subsequently subjected to an idiot with a router. The serial number on the neck plate is 33447 -- isn't there some way to look this up? The headstock logo is obviously not stock. That was done freehand, probably with a paint marker. Either way, I'm not too worried about the plywood bit -- #1, it's my first refinishing project, and #2, given the electronics I'm putting in, the effect on tone isn't THAT big. But yeah, when I got it, it came with some oddball licensed Floyd Rose -- it's only a single-locking trem. Meaning, the string saddles are the thread-through kind rather than bolt-in. It's extremely small for a Floyd, too -- hence the small tremolo cavity on the body. I'm replacing it mainly because the intonation screw hole on one of the saddles is strippied beyond repair, and I'm tired of always having that one string with horrible intonation. I'd replaced all the saddles with StringSavers, since that was the closest the guy at the guitar shop could find, but meh. And yes, it's set up like a floating fixed bridge... With a locking nut and fine tuners. Strange stuff. Probably some early Asian model... *shrug* If anyone is up to IDing it, I can post some pictures later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meegs666 Posted February 28, 2005 Report Share Posted February 28, 2005 well the plywood part sucks, but still progress is progress and youve definitly made some. so what kind of electronix are you putting in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted March 1, 2005 Report Share Posted March 1, 2005 It's ok man, but you won't believe how much of a difference that makes, trust me i modded my bronze warlock good luck with your refinish project:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon_Knightmare Posted March 1, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2005 well the plywood part sucks, but still progress is progress and youve definitly made some. so what kind of electronix are you putting in? ← I've got a Bill Lawrence L-500 XL for the bridge and a DiMarzio Virtual PAF for the neck. Bear in mind, I'm used to this thing having a pair of EMG Select (model SEHG) humbuckers... You know, the ones you can get for like $9 at most guitar shops. Of course, if I wanted to get really crazy, I could always dig up my set of original '69 Teisco Spectrum 2 pickups I have lying around. Or not. Yeah, forget I mentioned that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 With those electronics, you NEED to make a better body for it. It will be a night and day difference in sound. And you already got the guitar in front of you, all you need is a 3/16" masonite or a 3/4 MDF board and make a template of it. you can copy the body shape, pup rout, bridge rout and neck pocket on one sheet. PAss the shape to a body blank, rough shape it with a bandsaw or scrollsaw, and then tape the template to the blank and rout away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 I totally agree with Maiden. I had this crappy Bronze series warlock, and i bought a Seymour Duncan distortion for it, thinking it'd sound better, boy was i WRONG!! it still sounded horrible, I knew very little about guitars, however i did know how much a new body will make it sound , so i went out and bought a bunch of mahogany and made a new body for it, it gained new life, and i even went as far to glue the neck down the body, it became instantly my main guitar here's there pìc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon_Knightmare Posted March 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 Well, question... Since I'm using a Floyd Rose, isn't that going to make the wood type far less relevant? I mean, most of the string vibrations are going to ring through an aluminum block "floating" away from the body to begin with -- which I'm told brightens the tone considerably. I'm curious, actually, and the AF base has a "skills development center" with a full-blown wood shop, so I may just pick up an alder blank off eBay and try my hand at making a body copy anyway. Might be a real pain with all those curves... But then again, Neal calls her the Bitch for a reason, right? What I'd REALLY like to try is solid maple... Heavy as hell, sure, but the sustain... But anyway, thanks for the advice. For now, I'm trying my damnedest to start small, though. lol. Deciding to add "soft-edged" red paint over the top points was a leap in and of itself. Actually, for that I'm thinking of masking everything off up to a little above the base of the points, doing a few coats of red... Then un-masking an inch or so below the end of the red, and using standoffs to hold some heavy paper or card stock a quarter inch or so off the body, then doing another couple of coats for an effect similar to the edge of a burst. Think it will work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 Nope, Floyd Rose or no floy rose, the wood type is one of the most importants if not the most important thing to the tone and character of a guitar. I have heard since you need to route a lot to accomodate a Floyd Rose , that out lose out some frequencies on the bottom end. Maple would make your guitar brighter, with the pickups you mentioned, you might want to use alder or mahogany, and if you think that's Neal Moser's most difficult design to build, you should check the Morpheus put good luck man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon_Knightmare Posted March 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Yeah, I know the Bich is pretty mild for a Neal Moser design. I was just saying that, for a total beginner, the experience of cutting those horns will probably be a less-than-pleasant one. Heh. That said, I got some alder off eBay today. I was also bored out of my mind and did a search on bodies... I had earlier in the week, and nothing turned up. I found a Bich body listed in the wrong category -- he had it under "BC Rich" instead of "Parts > Bodies." Of course, I yoinked it. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...me=STRK:MEWA:IT It's an NJ series body, so it's most likely mahogany. In the bottom view picture, you can see wood grain in the trem cavity rather than layers, which means it's at least real wood. I think I'll press on with refinishing the plywood body, since that will get me some experience before I dive into refinishing the rest of the guitar bodies I have around the house. Furthermore, Duplicolor primer is my fookin' hero -- I was spraying in 34 degree weather last night, and it still flows. I TRIED to get it to run at one point (trying to blast-fill a ding I missed with the Bondo) and it took effort. The bucket of warm water probably gets most of the credit. Hehe. I'm trying to only spray when it's at least a few degrees above freezing out there. As such, I'm practically dusting my coats. I also think this guitar is going to be 20% primer by weight, just to get it smoothed out to where the metallic base coat will look good, since I can't really sand the stuff. Meanwhile, back at the ranch... I'm also working on the truss cover. I wound up using Testors model paint spray enamel crap to seal it so I can be sure the decals will stay on. I just laid the first clear coat, and I'm planning on applying the decal once that dries. I'm not overly worried about a glass-like finish on a truss cover -- I just want it black, sealed, and shiny. I'm planning on doing the same thing with a toggle switch ring, as well -- but I'm mullling over what to put on it. There's an entire thread on this, and I've narrowed it down to a few... What do you guys think of "Soulless/Heartless" on there? In red on a black background, of course. The other ideas were "Blood/Guts," which I think might not really match whatever theme this guitar has... And "Evil/EVIL!!!" *shakes his fist at Girl Brand Guitars* Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon_Knightmare Posted March 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Progress update... I'm in the middle of the primer stage. Fun stuff... I'm figuring it will take me roughly 6 or 7 cans of primer to get a nice smooth undercoat -- and Maiden, you should be proud. Your rattle can tutorial is like my Bible (er, perhaps necronomicon, come to think of it) right now. I can't wait to get this thing looking like a real guitar again, although the general consensus seems to be that it may never sound like one I also e-mailed B.C. Rich customer service to see what they could tell me about the guitar's serial number -- does "33447" mean anything to anyone? I'm guessing, as before, that it's either a heavily modified 80's Bronze series, or it may be an old Platinum Pro. I've been reading on BCRich.com about the wood types used on the different series, and all three of those use "agathis" -- which they claim in their FAQ to be mahogany, but for some reason translates to me as "laminate mahogany pulp." Honestly, the guitar didn't really sound all that bad with just a set of EMG Select pickups in it way back when -- so long as they were wired right. Heh. I'm thinking I'll have to do some "clean" recordings to compare and contrast between this one, the NJ Bich I've got on the way, and my similarly-equipped Epi Les Paul Special II. I'll post pics of the guitar once I get the rest of the primer on... Should be up tomorrow night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 6-7 cans is too much paint, you will chocke the vibration of the wood with that much paint on it, seriously, once you do about 3 coats should be enough. If you are doing the plywood body, the areas that are going to absorb a lot of primer are the sides were you can see the plywood. I used bondo over this in the past and it worked great. If this is the problem, just spray the sides until the grain starts to get covered and then spray the top and bottom. duplicolor is tricky so be carefull, you can spray a lot of coats and lay it very thick, but it will take forever to dry. Since you atarted with dupli, the above sentence will come very helpfull with the clear coat. DO NOT LAY IT THICK!!! You will be waiting for months for it to dry! And once you got the body smooth with the primer, spray as little as a color coat as you will need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon_Knightmare Posted March 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Good to know -- IMHO, it's not *staying* on very thick, as I've been attempting to use the primer's high build to fill in nicks and pores and such. I've been wet-sanding with 400 every couple of coats, and it keeps taking me almost to bare wood. It's being rather stubborn in a couple of spots -- I'd hoped the primer would fill these, but since I have to lay it on so thin, I'm not having much luck. Is it too late for a toothpick and Bondo? Thanks again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 If you got some small piholes to fill, stop, go to Autozone or whatever is close to you and get the bondo glazing putty. This you have to spread it super thin over the pinholes, enough that when you go pass them only the holes catch putty, it takes practice because a lot of people try to lay it like bondo on a thin coat, this will be a desaster in the long run because it is not strong enough. Once dry, dry sand with 600, blow it off, if they are covered then resume primer for 1-2 coats and you are done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon_Knightmare Posted March 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Cool -- I'll probably have to try that on one of the "horns" as well. There's a part where a tiny (like, maybe 1mm) piece of the plywood came out while I was doing my prep. I'm not sure how I managed not to notice it -- I blame it on a combination of lighting and trying to do bodywork at 4 AM. Heh, also, it looks like I ran Wal-Mart out of the high-build gray filler primer. I wound up getting some gray "hot rod" primer, which I figured on using for the final primer coats, since I should have less crap to fill in by then. I hope this works... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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