Neon_Knightmare

Muhahahaha... One perfect for a BC Rich Bich: Heartless/Soulless

EMG 81's, all the way. lol. Actually, I wonder how a set of Bill Lawrence L-500s might sound in that thing, or perhaps a DiMarzio X2N. The X2N will likely sound like crap with a floating tremolo, but if it's going to be a hardtail, it may be an option. Also, if he wants to give that guitar a serious case of split personalities, a DiMarzio PAF in the neck will give it a silky smooth blues tone you wouldn't believe. I'm addicted to the "Virtual" PAF pickups myself. Or, if he wants the active route, the EMG-ZW set (81 in the bridge, 85 in the neck) always works. Otherwise maybe a 60 in the neck... Depending on how obsessed he is with replicating Metallica's tone. But yeah, if it were me, I'd probably go with a pair of EMG 81's. Can't say I'm too versed in Seymour Duncans, IMHO. Just my two cents.

As far as the second layout goes... You know, if you did the headstock in the same color scheme as the body, that would probably look pretty good... You know, the classic "3-D" figured maple finish (stain it red, spray a coat of black, and knock off the "peaks" in the black coat with some fine-grain sandpaper). Just a thought.

Matt, that guitar body looks like it kills puppies for fun. In a word, AWESOME. Digideus's headstock design looks perfect for it in my opinion.

Awesome, wasn't sure if it had to be on a bare surface or not. This will make things much smoother... *evil cackle*

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...

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...

Stupid question... Is it safe to use Bondo over primer? Let's just say I'm refinishing an axe, and when I was filling dings and chips, I kinda missed a few, and the primer isn't quite filling them as I'd hoped.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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*