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Thread: BC-1

  1. #1
    Hello to everybody. I've been reading the forum here for some time, and I recently bought a BC-1 kit.

    I'm not the greatest fan of the BC-1 body shape, and really went with it as it was a steal on eBay. I'm guessing PBG loses money on eBay sales by the price I paid...

    Anyway, I wanted to document the build for this one. I think there is only one other BC-1 build thread at this point.

    The kit took a while to arrive, perhaps a little over a week. To be expected, even StarTrack and others take four days to deliver "overnight" from Brisbane to Townsville, so from Perth by Australia Post is pretty good considering.

    The kit was packed well, and I did a dry run assembly of neck & body, and pickups. One of the pickup routes looked like it hadn't quite been routed to the right depth, but a dry run shows it's fine. The neck is tight, and the scale looks good (although I didn't measure it). I did not do a dry run fit of the bridge hardware.



  2. #2
    So for this build I thought a bright gloss red would work well. The basswood grain is pretty non-distinct, and I don't think the general style suits a Wudtone finish. I'm painting the body, and the front of the headstock. The back of the neck will be finished with oil, Tru-Oil, Linseed Oil, or similar.

    In trying to keep this really simple, and something that others can replicate easily, I tried to source everything from Super Cheap Auto, because they are ubiquitous.

    Grain Filling: Septone Blade Putty. Not at all traditional, but it was on the shelf and it's compatible with the SCA primer & paint products.

    Primer: Septone Acrylic Primer Filler. This is not quite a high build filler primer, but it does a pretty good job. In hindsight I would probably have bought a 1 litre can of the same Septone Acrylic Primer Filler and painted it on. Using the spray packs is expensive.

    Paint: PowerPlus Touch Up Paint. Also a SCA product, with a huge range of colours. Acrylic, should be perfectly compatible with the primer. I got a small can to test, but will likely need a few of the large cans.

    Top Coat: Septone Acrylic Topcoat Clear. General acrylic clear paint, should be compatible with the colour. I may have gone with the PowerPlus brand clear coat, but the SCA store did not have it in stock.

  3. #3
    So, I've already filled the grain & shot a couple of primer coats. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures during the grain filling & painting, so I've only got the pictures of the primed body.

    To fill the grain I simply used a plastic scraper to wipe the putty on in as thin of a layer as possible. This is difficult, as the putty seems to dry super fast in thin layers. Once dry the putty sands down very well. I sanded until it was gone from the surface except for the relief of the grain - there is almost no putty, except for a few spots where there were minor dings. In hindsight, I would use timbermate even though I'm painting over as it is much easier to work with. In fact, colour me dirty that I found an unused container of timbermate after I'd used the putty.

    Nevertheless, the spray primer goes on over the sanded & filled body quite well. The first coat soaked in a huge amount, and the next coat almost as much. The "furry" parts of the basswood really show after the first primer coat. I sanded down both coats with 240 grit wet and dry. This got rid of those "furry" bits, and gave a really smooth finish. The next coat of primer went on even better and is very smooth. You can no longer see the grain on the edges or faces of the body. I'll probably do one more coat before I move to colour coats.



  4. #4
    On a related note, if you intend to spray your guitar, consider purchasing one of these plastic handle type doo-hickey-ma-jigs. About 3 bucks at Bunnings, and they eliminate sore & painted fingers and help you to control how you spray.

  5. #5
    Overlord of Music gavinturner's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    HOLGATE NSW
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    3,057
    Hi KT, Welcome to the forum!
    The BC-1 is a great kit - i just finished one with my 9 year old son. Looks great (well, he thinks so ) and more importantly it sounds really awesome. Have fun and keep us updated!

    cheers,
    Gavin.
    --
    Build #01: BC-1
    Build #02: ST-1
    Build #03: JR-1DC
    Build #04: ES-2V
    Build #05: ESB-4 (GOTM July 2014)
    Build #06: RC-1
    Build #07: MK-2
    Build #08: TLA-1
    Build #09: JR-1DC
    Build #0A: LPA-1
    Build #0B: STA-1 (GOTM April 2015)
    Build #0C: MKA-2
    Build #0D: LP-1M
    Build #0E: JB-1
    Build #0F: FS-1

    Find me:
    https://www.facebook.com/firescreek.guitars/
    http://www.guitarkitbuilder.blogspot.com.au/

  6. #6
    GAStronomist stan's Avatar
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    Aug 2013
    Location
    Geelong, Vic
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    5,290
    looks pretty slick so far kt

  7. #7
    Overlord of Music gavinturner's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    HOLGATE NSW
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    Great job with the undercoat KT. Looks great already! Just noticed that you are using Power Plus spray from Super Cheap Auto. This is exactly the same spray we used for our BC-1. It went on nice and smooth - I was very pleased with it! I'm very interested to see how the clear coat goes. On my first build i used power plus paint and nitro. The nitro was super expensive to buy in cans, so it would be great to find an alternative that looks good and brings the gloss.

    cheers,
    Gavin.
    --
    Build #01: BC-1
    Build #02: ST-1
    Build #03: JR-1DC
    Build #04: ES-2V
    Build #05: ESB-4 (GOTM July 2014)
    Build #06: RC-1
    Build #07: MK-2
    Build #08: TLA-1
    Build #09: JR-1DC
    Build #0A: LPA-1
    Build #0B: STA-1 (GOTM April 2015)
    Build #0C: MKA-2
    Build #0D: LP-1M
    Build #0E: JB-1
    Build #0F: FS-1

    Find me:
    https://www.facebook.com/firescreek.guitars/
    http://www.guitarkitbuilder.blogspot.com.au/

  8. #8
    looking good dude

  9. #9
    Moderator Brendan's Avatar
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    Apr 2013
    Location
    Perth, WA
    Posts
    3,444
    Welcome along - sounding like a cracker of a build. Dunno - red just seems to be the colour for a hot guitar... Love it... Keen to see the results.

  10. #10
    I'm liking the amount of detail you're putting in here - for a numpty like me, who might just do a solid gloss colour one day, this is really useful. Keep it up!

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