Plugging away

As the tremolo studs in the RS10V are in the wrong place for a Speedloader I need to plug and redrill them.

This is not the first time I've done this so I'm getting a lot more confident at it. The current holes were roughly 8mm but slightly 'serrated' from the bushes just as they should be. So I drilled them out to 9mm, being careful not to eat into the top surrounding the tremolo route.

Then it was just a matter of cutting some 9mm dowel, using a toothpick to spread some glue in the holes and tapping the dowels in. The dowels are slightly proud but I'll carefully route them flat when I route the top deeper, which will probably be necessary.

I've managed to source a cheap Speedloader guitar and I'm now waiting for it to arrive, so this project is moving slowly forward.

The photos make the blue quilt finish look really nice but the finish is so thick and dark it's hard to see. If the project to convert this to headless works out OK I'll try to thin the finish down with wet and dry in order to get rid of the nasty scratches then put a single clear coat back over the top. I'm hoping this will also improve the look.

The not so cunning plan

So, the plan isn't that cunning really. My friend JayGee said, on seeing a Speedloader equipped guitar, that it would make far more sense to use them to make headless guitars than what BC Rich did with them.

Here is the RS10V alongside my Speedloader Mockingbird and I've had a go at swapping the tremolo across to see how it goes together.

The nut fits quite nicely, but I kind of always expected it to.

The bridge isn't quite there though. At first glance it looks like it should work and the studs have a standard 74mm spacing. Before buying the guitar I also checked that the scale length of the RS10V is 25.5" (by measuring the RS8V) so I knew my stash of Speedloader strings should work.

Unfortunately in another bit of non-standard madness, Washburn placed the bridge studs 25" from the nut when common fitment is about 25.1"-25.2". This is opposite to the issue I had with the RR2V.

The Speedloader only works by being in a very very specific place relative to the nut, so as you can see the strings are all flapping around, not under tension at all. A quick measure up shows the bridge needs to be roughly 25.25" from the nut.

Despite this problem, having mocked up how this fits together I reckon this can be resolved and a Speedloader fitted. There's a fair bit of wood in the area of the bridge studs so moving them back should be practical. I'll need to route the top more deeply for the tremolo too, which will be interesting because of the carved top, but it's all grist to the learning mill.

Now I need to haunt eBay to pick up a Speedloader as I don't particularly want to strip down the Mockingbird. Whole BC Rich guitars fitted with one come up occasionally and often change hands for a pittance as they were really unpopular. Although it's a little random and sometimes you get a couple of people who fancy one bidding against each other so the price goes right up.

BC Rich #2 - 'NJ Speedloader Mockingbird'

While looking quite different and having a quilted top this is functionally identical to my Speedloader Warlock.

Really.

BC Rich #1 - 'NJ Speedloader Warlock'

Every time I get this guitar out of the (coffin shaped, natch) case I feel I should be sacrificing a small animal while screaming "Hail Satan!". Or something.

Ever since I saw tons of thrash bands (and Poison) playing Warlocks in the 80s and 90s I've wanted one. Given BC Rich have done a bewildering variety of affordable models over the years I'm kind of surprised I didn't pick one up. I guess I was just a little embarrassed by them.

This is a bit of an oddity as it is fitted with an Original Floyd Rose Speedloader tremolo. Having patented what is now the de-facto locking tremolo, Floyd Rose have had a bit of a problem coming up with any new products that move things forward.

This was their attempt to deal with the moans people have about a Floyd Rose being fiddly to restring and tune. Instead of conventional machine heads to bring the strings up to tune the Speedloader relies on very accurately made strings which are cut to length so that as soon as you fit them they'll close to tune. You simply then use the fine tuners to dial it in.

This works fine but the guitar looks a bit odd without machine heads and it ties you in to buying the special strings. The biggest problem is that it precludes alternative tunings completely, which I imagine is what stopped this taking off. BC Rich's main market is metal and metal has gone for drop or down tuning in a big way over the last couple of decades.

In play the Speedloader feels no different to a conventional Floyd Rose. I can imagine there would be a market for the Speedloader but not metal. You could certainly do a nice headless guitar with it and I believe they made a fixed bridge version which should be rock solid.

The Warlock is surprisingly practical to play, it's comfortable seated or on a strap and the spikes don't get in the way. It's far cuddlier than expected. Beyond this its a fairly run of the mill Korean made rock guitar. The pickups are very hot and a bit mushy sounding but that's only to be expected.