Son of Beast for a Son of Iowa

[dr_erock]

Greetings from Minneapolis, Minnesota in wild and crazy United States of America. Today my BC-1 kit arrived- not too shabby since I ordered it only 8 days ago, the shipping wasn't terribly expensive, and Perth is one heckuva long way from Minnesota. But I guess Perth is a heckuva long way from everywhere.

The BC-1 is an homage to the BC Rich Avenge Son of Beast-- an absolutely ridiculous guitar. But in fairness the Son of Beast is 10% smaller than the especially ridiculous BC Rich Beast. I went to junior high in Iowa in 1990 at the height of the hair metal epidemic-- prime time for silly guitars. I've always thought it would be funny to have a BC Rich just because the flamboyance and excessiveness of them really doesn't fit me at all. Somehow in my mind building one myself as a woodworking exercise seems easier to justify than actually purchasing one.

Anyway- here it is fresh out of the box. Away we go!

IMG_3262 by Dr. E-Rock, on Flickr

[Dedman]

Fun! it should always be about the fun. Enjoy it!

[Fretworn]

Welcome Doc!

[Andyxlh]

Excellent! The perfect instrument to play 'Brown eyed girl' on when you get it finished.

[dr_erock]

I'm in the process of ordering higher quality replacement parts for the hardware before the mock build. I was thinking about replacing the nut since the one on here appears to be PVC, and Paul Reed Smith is fond of saying that you shouldn't build a guitar out of what toilets are made of. However it appears the nut on the BC-1 is a non-standard size so I'd have to carve a new nut by hand. I don't think I've reached that level of ninjutsu yet, especially since my skill level is currently managed to open the box that it came in.

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/81054140@N05/43738876621/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_3268"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/851/43738876621_7237ddce01_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="IMG_3268"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Simon Barden]

Have you measured the dimension? You can normally find lots of people on the web that will make a nut to your specifications from bone or whatever your preferred material is, and they don't normally cost that much at all.

Carving a nut from a blank isn't that difficult if the blank is the right general size to begin with, but you will need a set of nut files; which are a great investment for the future but they aren't cheap.

I've normally been able to find nuts of the right size or almost the right size on eBay. If its very slightly too long, then you can trim the ends down with a file to make it fit. The biggest issue is normally getting one the right depth so that there's no gap behind it and the face of the headstock.

[BJMtz]

Hey Dr, good to see another US builder here. Cool looking guitar. What are your plans for finish? Will a Gibson style nut work? Hard to tell from the pic but it looks like it could be a similar size.

[dr_erock]

Hey BJMtz- I'm starting out by painting it red-- Ford Motor Company Cardinal Red to be specific, made by Dupli-Color. But then I'm going to sticker bomb it with the most offensive stickers I can find and then seal it with a clear coat.

[dr_erock]

Does anyone know if the nuts on the Pitbull kits are stuck in with superglue? From what I understand that's the worst thing to use if you ever want to take it out.

[wazkelly]

Might be a thin layer of super glue holding the nut in place.
A light gentle tap from the side is usually enough to take them off without doing too much damage.
I would also recommend using a very sharp blade to score the edge where nut meets the fret board first to prevent bits of that coming off too, which is easy to do on rose wood type fret boards, not such a problem on maple as it is a much harder timber.
Cheers, Waz

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk