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BC Rich NJ Eagle Flies Again

klk999

klk999

Apr 6, 2007
188
47
Charlotte, NC
#1
This thread is a write up of how I found, repaired and restored a BC Rich NJ Eagle from the early 1980s. When I first got this bass, I had posted about it here, http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5291951&postcount=291. Since that post, I searched and read many threads, posted a few times here and on the BC Rich Players forum, in a effort to get ideas, insight and solutions that came up during the restoration process. The users on both sites were indispensable in the restoration of this guitar.
 
#2
Old bird found in rough shape, rehab needed

Here I was, in a pawn shop here Charlotte in February of 2008, looking for a guitar for my brother. What catches my eye, though, is this sorry looking BC Rich NJ series Eagle Bass. I had been looking for a bass project ever since I had finished restoring my Carvin guitar in 2004. They were asking $250, so I did not get it right away, considering the condition of the guitar and my lack of knowledge on BCRs. I could not get it out of my head, so after doing some research on it here at TalkBass and the BC Rich Players forum, I decided to get it. I brought it home to roost for $175.

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I took inventory of the things I needed to do and the hardware that I would need to get to make it playable. The neck was straight, and the frets seemed ok. The pickups were missing the pole pieces, so they would need to be replaced. The nut looked like it was two sizes too big. I would also need to get tuners, a bridge, strap buttons, knobs, truss rod nut and truss rod cover and of course some new strings. At the time, I was still on the fence about stripping and refinishing it. There were some places where the finish looked great and there were places where it was badly damaged all the way through and into the wood. From what I could tell, the damage did not appear to be more than cosmetic, caused by excessive use. Or so I thought.

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After taking some pictures, it went into a case and into a closet. That spring I had too many things going on to spend much time on it. But within a few weeks of bringing it home I started my search for parts. I created and saved some searches in eBay for various p-bass pickups; BC Rich, Dimarzio, and SD Quarter pound. Ten months later, right after the beginning of this year, I see an auction for two pairs of p-bass pickups on eBay from a guy parting out a mid ‘80s NJ Mockingbird. Unfortunately, that was all he had that I needed. I got them for a decent price and that led me to finally start the project of making this bird sing again.

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#3
There are internal injuries, we need to operate

The first step was to remove all of the old hardware. By the time I had everything removed, what should have been a relatively mundane exercise left me with a knot in my stomach and my head spinning. It turns out the bridge and tuners were hiding some serious issues to the guitar. Under the bridge, there were three screws sheared off. :( That’s not good, I think to myself, but I should be able to fix that easily enough. Next out came the electronics. The wiring package looked like it had not been touched since it left the factory. The pots were in decent shape, though the bridge volume knob was very stiff. I was surprised to find that the pickups were only missing the pole pieces, but otherwise intact.

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All that was left was to remove the amateurishly installed aftermarket tuners. When I removed them, my stomach kind of flip flopped. It had been pretty obvious since I purchased this guitar that one of the previous owners was not very knowledgeable about fixing guitars, but what I found was beyond idiocy. Someone had enlarged the tuner holes to make the replacement tuners fit, and it looks like they used a pocket knife. The holes were huge, way larger than they needed to be, and not even round. :crying: That kind of rocked me a bit. I have some woodworking skills and tools, but this was beyond my skills or my tools. Luckily I know people.

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I took the bass to buddy of mine, Chris, who is a very good carpenter, but does not know the first thing about guitars. I had figured the best way to fix the tuner holes was to plug them and drill new ones, but needed some help on a way to accomplish that. After some discussion with Chris, we decided to drill out the holes to make them circular again, and fill them with plugs made from a maple board rather than a dowel. We decided that 7/8” would be the diameter for the plug, so I needed to find a 7/8” plug cutter, because he did not have one.

While I was there we also removed the broken screws that were under the bridge. Two came out easy, the third not so much. The hole more than doubled in size by the time it was completely removed. Oh well, just one more plug to create. At least this plug would be easy.

We also talked about the finish and whether I should strip it or not. The biggest concerns were with the areas around and under the bridge and the headstock; how would the hardware fit and look and how would the guitar as a whole look after the repairs were made? By this point it just seemed better to strip it than try and work around the issues at either end of the guitar.

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We also talked about the finish and whether I should strip it or not. Our concerns were with the areas around the bridge and the headstock, and how would the hardware fit and look after the repairs were made. At this point it just seemed better to strip it than try and work with the issues presented at either end of the guitar.
 
#4
We can rebuild it, we have the technology; do I have the money?

I now had a lot of work ahead of me. I needed to find a 7/8” plug cutter, some rosewood to mount on top of the plugs for the tuner holes, a bridge and tuners. The tuners presented a bit of a challenge. I needed to find ones with a small diameter bushing. Most tuners require 9/16” or 11/16” holes, but there are some which require a 7/16” hole. The two manufactures I found that had tuners to that spec were Schaller and Sperzel, and searches for both on the ‘net and eBay found that Sperzel’s were more affordable. Later that same week, a set of satin2x2 4 string Sperzels showed up on eBay for a good price.

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After searching the ‘net, I also found a plug cutter for $19; which sounds like a lot for something I used to make 5 plugs, but that was a decent price. If I could find a non-tapered one in 7/8” at all they were going for $35-$40 for one or $60-$100 as part of a kit. I also found some 3”x6”x1/8” rosewood on the Bay for $3.00.

What kind of bridge? That was not an easy question to answer as there are a lot of choices when it comes to bass bridges. I wanted a Badass II or Schaller, due to their reputations, but the price and or availability of either one kept me from going there. Because of the weirdness of eBay, I ended up winning auctions for two bridges on consecutive days. I got a used, old and discontinued black and chrome Wilkinson that was in good shape. I also won a chrome Gotoh 203 that came in the box, but did not have the screws or Allen wrench. The Wilkinson’s holes lined up perfectly, but I was not fond of the way it looked. The Gotoh looked brand new but was very Fenderish, and the front holes did not line up with the original holes on the bass. Luckily that decision could wait until later.

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During this time I was also working on ways to remove the finish. I had done some research to find the best method, but did not find anything conclusive. I decided against chemical strippers, so I fired up my B&D sander 1/3 sheet sander with 60 grit. After five minutes you could barely tell I had done anything. At that point I figured maybe a heat gun would be more efficient. A trip to Northern Tool for said gun and it was time to strip the guitar naked.
 
#6
This hurts me more than it hurts you.

I must say that using a heat gun to remove an old finish is an interesting experience. Almost all of the senses get a workout. Much like working with a power sander, you cannot hear much over it while it is on. The vibration is not as bad as a sander, but it lets you know that it is there. Of course there is the heat. Since I live in North Carolina, let’s just say that I was glad I was doing this part in February instead of July. One of those weird things I noticed was the little pieces of finish cool down pretty quickly once they leave the guitar. However, the back of my arms found that a small consolation as the small, nearly molten pieces flying around managed to land right onto the only exposed skin below the neck.

Then there are the smells. I figured this would be a stinky job, but was I wrong. Not long after I started, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the odor was not only unpleasant, it was actually kind of nice. My son came into the garage after I had been going for about 30 minutes and asked why the garage smelled like sore throat medicine. Indeed, there was a nice cherry odor coming from the guitar. Weird. I am not sure what the NJ factory used to finish these guitars with, but it was not plastic based. However, there was one not so pleasant smell. When using a heat gun on something made of wood, the smell of burning wood is not a good thing. Twice I left the gun stationary for too long, and had couple of areas that started to smoke and discolor. Oops. You would think that after the first time I would have learned, but I did it once to the back, and once to the front.

It took about 20 minutes or so for me to get the hang of what to look for. When a section that I had been heating up was ready to be scraped, it would start to bubble and turn kind of brown. Once I figured that out, the going went a lot faster and easier. Sometimes I could get large chunks of finish to come up easily, especially on the maple. The mahogany was a lot more stubborn.

I started on the back, near the control cavity, working my way towards the neck. The finish was already gone from here, so it was easy to get started. The rhythm would go like this. I would use the gun to soften up a small patch, trying to keep the gun moving, while scraping with a putty knife that I had ground the corners off of. Once done with the back, I moved to the sides, then the top, and finally the neck, back and sides of the headstock. I paused when I got to the back of the headstock. I had a strong feeling that removing the finish where the serial number was would make it go away. I was right. Oh well, one more thing to puzzle out.

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All in all, it took me most of a Saturday to get 99% of the old finish off. The rest would need to come off by sanding. I did not even try to remove the finish in the control cavity or pickup holes. I spent part of the following Sunday and a good part of the following weekend sanding it down. I started with 60 grit paper, and focused on the remaining spots of old finish, as well as the more bruised and battered areas on the body and neck. I then worked my way up the sanding scale, using 100, 150, 220, 320, and 400. Just for fun, and because I already had some, I did my final sanding on the neck with some 600 grit.

I decided to leave the front of the headstock alone at that point. I had found a guy that would create a new water slip logo if I provided the artwork, but that was a last resort.

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#14
Wow ;) I've been waiting for a thread like this for a couple years.

I bought an N.J. neck thru mock. It was an aged white bass, in great condition sans a few extra button holes on the body.

My original intention was to find a transparent finished american made mock. I didn't want to pay top dollar, so I decided to strip the N.J.. At the same time a few american made mocks came up on ebay that were affordable. So I bought them: A regular american made pearl blue and a hollow flake supreme. I bought these from the same seller who was apparently selling them for a collector. A few years later a TBer here contacted me, to say he used to own the hollow flake and said he would buy it back at a premium price. I have fallen in love with it's tone and just can't part with it.

So I figured I would use the N.J. as a test project, then move to the american mades. I stripped the N.J.. It's beautiful. I had to do the headstock too as the finsh was chipping around a key hole. I contacted people here locally to try to replicate the "R" logo. They didn't want to touch it siting copyright crap.

So 4 years later (kids) I've been real motivated to finish it. I have found an "R" decal that I'lll use as a template. But now a friend who was gonna clear coat it doesn't want to touch it now after doing a bit of research. He finishes cars and said the poly urethane he was going to use won't work.

So I'm wondering how you finished yours? I am so anxious to complete mine. I've bought an orig badass and have some seymore duncans that came in it - the 80's kind that have the 3 toggle switches on one of each of the split pickups.

P.S. - I've decided refinishing the american mades will be too risky and lower their value too much so they will stay as is. Although the brain/preamp in the supreme is dead and only works passive but it still has an unmatched tone, I really don't want to mess with it afraid I'll lose this sound I've found.

our basses look like they could be brothers.

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#15
A new set of clothes really makes the man

Ever since I removed the red finish and saw how nice the wood was under I knew that I would be doing a natural finish. The only question was with what? Since I did not have access to a spray booth, my choices were limited to wipe or brush on. I narrowed it down to either Tung oil or Tru-Oil. At my local Woodcraft store, an 8 ounce bottle of Tru-Oil was $15, while a 32 ounce bottle of Woodcraft Tung oil was $13. Tung oil it was, as I was not, and still not sure that Tru-Oil is four times better than the Woodcraft Tung oil.

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The only prep work I needed to do before applying the oil was to mask off the fret board. While a little Tung oil would not be bad for it, I did not want too much to get on it, since I was planning on over a dozen coats of oil on the body. Starting in the third week of June, I started applying a coat of oil at least once a day. The first three or four coats were cut down with paint thinner; by the fifth coat I was full strength. I applied the oil with a rag that was once an old t-shirt. I would start on the front and sides of the guitar, wait about 30 minutes then wipe off with a clean rag. Then I would do the back, neck and all of the headstock except the front.

Depending on humidity, some days I got in two coats, but most of the time I could only do one. Between every other coat, I would wet sand with some 600 grit paper and oil, or 0000 steel wool. By July 5, I was done with Tung oil, mostly because I was going on vacation the next day. I figured two weeks drying time would be good. I thought I had taken some pictures during this part of the project, but I if I did, I am not sure where they went.

It turned out to be about four weeks until I got back to working on it. I had a few more things I needed to do to the finish before I could start adding hardware. First, I put several coats of Polyurethane on the face of the headstock. I had sanded it down to get the plugs flush with the headstock, as well as to get some of the dings smoothed out. I wanted to add some sheen back to it, plus seal the new rosewood where the plugs were. I also put a couple coats of very thinned Tung oil on the fret board to liven it up some. Lastly, I put on several coats of Minwax Furniture Finishing wax. I let that sit for a couple of weeks to harden.
 
#19
Preflight check

One dilemma I had been facing since removing the old finish was what to do about the serial number. Unfortunately, it went away with the old finish. I had several ideas on how to put the SN back on the bass, including an ink stamp, writing with a sharpie, or metal stamps. My solution was to use a water slip decal. I got a sheet of laser decal “paper” off eBay. Using my meager Photoshop skills, I recreated the number as best as I could. I printed and cut it out and then put it on after my second coat of tung oil. So I have about 15 coats of finish over the decal. It looks good, but not original.

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Another dilemma was the truss rod nut. When I got the bass, it was just about useless, as the outside of the “nut” was about completely stripped, so I knew that I was going to have to address it at some point. However, sometime during the stripping, sanding or drilling phases, it worked itself off and vanished into the nether reaches. :scowl: This is a somewhat common occurrence in my life.

When I searched for truss rod nuts online, I found a replacement for Gibson guitars that looked like mine had looked, sans round corners. I ordered one, but when I tried to put it on, it did not fit, it was too small. Like just about everything else with this guitar it could not be easy. Off to the hardware store, to see if I could find out what size it is. It turns out the truss rod is metric, and the nut that fit on it is a 6mmx1. I spent several hours looking for a metric replacement truss rod nut on the internet to no avail. Hmm, what to do now? The answer was to punt and come back later.

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At this point, the last week of August, the to-do list was getting shorter, there was still much that needed to be done. What I had left was to do was put hardware back on, including the bridge, tuners, strap pegs, and the electronics, get some strings, and take it to someone to either make me a new nut or fix the funky one that was on the bass when I got it. I went ahead and installed the tuners and pickups, and the back strap button. The epoxy we put in front strap hole did not take well and the hole was too large for the screw.

One last trip to my friend Chris’ house, so we could get the bridge mounted and fix the other strap button hole. After some careful measurements, we drilled out the holes for the bridge and mounted it. We also plugged the front strap button hole with a small piece of oak dowel, and moved the strap button about ¼” forward.

He also helped me with the truss rod nut. The solution was to drill and tap out the 10/32 nut to fit a 6mmx1 bolt. Again, he was the man with the tools and knowledge. I spent hours of searching on the internet, several trips to the hardware store, and it took Chris less than 10 minutes to make it fit. I cannot begin to thank Chris for all of the things he helped me with on this project. If any of you are in the Charlotte area and need furniture or any kind of carpentry, big or small, PM me.
 
#20
And we have lift-off

I realized that I was real close to finally making this bird sing again. The first thing I did the following Saturday was to wire up the pots to the pickups. I then set the oversized nut in place with a few drops of super glue, put on some old strings, adjusted the truss rod and bridge, plugged it in, and BOOM, we are rockin’. :bassist: Wow, this things sounds good, but it really needed a setup as the action was goofy and intonation was off. A set of new Rotosound strings showed up in the mail the following Monday, so off it went to a real guitar tech to fix the nut and do a proper setup on it.

When I pick it up a couple of days later, the tech gives me one last piece of not good news. He said several of the frets were “popped”, and should be replaced at some point. He did the best he could, which I would say is pretty good. The bass plays great, there is very little fret buzz, only in a couple of spots. A fret replacement will set me back at least a couple of hundred bucks, so I am not ready to go there right now. Everything else was good to go; action, pickup height and intonation. He reshaped the nut that was on it when I got the bass, so that saved me $10.00. The guy did a great job in making it playable.

I had just a few more things to do to finish this bird. I put on the truss rod cover and the three new knobs I had ordered from Neal Moser. I had also touched up the control cavity cover and jack plate with some black spray paint followed by some spray lacquer. I may get some new ones from Moser at some point, but right now they are working. Now this bird is ready to rock!

That’s it. As you can see, it turned out beautifully. Even better is the way it sounds and plays. The neck is nice and fast and the sound goes from old school thump to old school growly. I love it. Man, does this thing have a great sound. This was quite the interesting project to make this bird fly again. Now all that is left, I guess, is for me to learn to play “Fly like an Eagle”. :hyper:

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