The 2003 B.C. Rich Warlock was bought for $50 at a pawn shop in Everett WA with my ex-room mate Kat. They had 2, and the shop cut us a deal, $100 for both - Kat got the black one, I got this weird, glad-bag-brown transparent one. I always liked Bronze Series Warlocks because they made a good "surrogate" for the Hondo Paul Dean model in the early days as they had most of the same features (same circuit, similar pickups, Leo Quan Badass Bridge, and a skinny neck). Kat's brother Hawk bought one first, then Kat got that one, I built Hawk a custom one, then I bought this one.

The Warlock was used (mostly) stock initially, just with some added chrome to make it look less like "Trans Glad-Bag Agathis". In 2008, I got adventurous and repainted it metallic blue, and put the original Jagmaster pickup in it. It sounded and played great, then the neck got trashed for....reasons...and so it sat as a parts for awhile.

We had a little false start in 2021-2022 when the wife painted it pink, and I decided to try silver-leaving it and painting the sides black. When we got the pink pickups over the holidays we decided it was "too much" and decided to repaint it basic black, and put this one up for sale at a discount to some lucky buyer once it's done.

The first thing to do was the painting process, which now is Project Source black paint, which is a very close match to the older Bronze Series black paint used. The woodgrain just is not nice enough to show, so we covered it in black. Black is also a good aesthetic choice for pretty much any guitar aimed at the metal genre because that's what most metalheads want to play, usually black, white, or crimson red. Since we had pink pickups, these give it a dash of color. A cool part of the pickup-element though is it kind of makes it look like a Drake from Dragon Warrior, lol. Basically sanded the thin pink coat with 320, letting it act as a primer. Right now I'm sanding out imperfections and applying more coats of black to the guitar over time. The goal will be to get the black up to snuff, and then - MAYBE - I might consider doing silverleaf on the beveled edges, but I'm tempted to leave them as/is since a lot of the "harder" metal heads these days would hate that sort of thing and consider it too much.

But the real question, because B.C. Rich made a LOT of headstocks, and this is kind of like a "Bronze Warlock Deluxe" model....WHAT headstock should I use. I notice that the original "Bronze Series" headstocks are a version of the "POinted" headstock designed to fit on a regular blank designed for Fender-style headstocks, even with the same string pull as a strat if the peghead were tilted. I'm thinking about doing the wilder, wider, bigger, 80's pointed headstock. But then there's the Widow and Beast pegheads. I'm not doing the older Bernie Richo designs on the bottom, I feel those are better on a more "upscale" model that has the nicer woods and fancier electronics (even though I plan to get pretty fancy with this one). The "round" heastock is also tempting because I've seen George Kooeymans of Golden Earring playing a Warlock with that headstock in one of their mid-80's videos (he was a big B.C. Rich user in the 80's, using Biches and Warlocks quite a bit). Other than the shape, it's going to be a pretty basic cut-sand-spray-label-spray job for the most part.

The ultimate goal most likely, will be to sell this guitar. I'm not a big B.C. Rich guy (honestly, my favorite body design of B.C. Rich's is the Ironbird!), but I do like them and want to give this thing a new lease on life as a total tone machine with shred maniac capabilities. Usually when I'm playing a 24.75" scale guitar these days, it's usually my Hondo Paul Dean II, Epiphone Les Paul, or I tend to veer more toward 24" scale guitars like the Jag-Stang/Jaguar/Mustang usually.

As for the headstock logo, I'm probably just going to put "B.C. Rich" on it and thats that, the real question though, is do I do "Silver" "White" or "Gold" on it? I like the idea of the white one the most, but silver or gold might be a good way of signifying this Warlock is a rebuild. I also will be installing the Strap Locks I have so that whoever gets it can put their shoulder strap on the guitar too and not have it turn into a lawn dart (I've seen that happen with a warlock before...lol).

This one will come together a bit faster than the other builds, in that it's pretty basic. Sealed Gear inexpensive tuners, black painted headstock face with white B.C. Rich logo (full sized), original neckplate, touch up the black paint, pink speed knobs, chrome Leo Quan Badass style bridge, and then the wiring.

The Diagram has not been built yet, but I was planning the idea of putting push/pull coil splits on the volume and tone knobs for each humbucker...either that or going with a single pink speed knob, and following that up with 2 Tri-Mode switches behind the 3-way switch, and a pink arcade style kill button.

What needs done next....

First I need to drill the holes for the neckplate and it's screws to attach the neck to the guitar.

Then I need to decide on a headstock shape and cut that out, then drill it for tuners. After that, it will need painted black, and then the B.C. Rich Waterslide will go over it and clearcoated under the finish. Then a protective finish on the back.

Then we order the electronics and bridge, string is up, and do all the initial tests and tweaks to make sure that it's working and playing 100% it's best.

After that, the guitar likely will go on a new Reverb store of mine, and be sold there, I'm thinking for between $150 and $215.

See, I use Chinese necks because I save massively in $$$ for what for me is basically "minimal" work. That's my attitude to cheap gear and parts - what you save in $$ is what you pay for in work. Sometimes it's more work than it's worth, sometimes it's a real steal. This is the latter. Compared to what I'm dealing with on the PDX-90 build - which is a full neck build from scratch this is nothing to deal with. First off, I dress the fret ends with some needle files I got at the dollar store, which do a great job. My goal is to always make my fret ends feel like my old worn in Fender Jag-Stang, which is very comfy. I usually roll the fretboard edges while I Do this too, which just makes the neck extremely comfortable to play. It's a good process to put some YouTubes on the TV and space out to once I'm "in the zone". Sometimes building these things is just like playing them.

Next was the headstock, which I decided in the end, to do a combination of the old, wider, pointy B.C. Rich 80's headstock, and the modern B.C. Rich Bronze Series headstock - which I found would be a good match to the Warlock's stock body shape. I started off HAND drawing the lines with my yardstick and copying the general shape - starting with a more "Fender-like" angle of the machine heads similiar to a Bronze Series headstock. The result looks proportional to the Warlock-Body in shape. The plan is after this, I'll put on a black finish on top, and a gun oil finish on the back, and then put a chrome or silver B.C. Rich logo on the headstock - because despite the yinfente neck, this is a B.C. Rich still, it has a body and neckplate. The bridge also has been ordered - it's coming in from CAlifornia. So I'll probably have to buy a can of black paint for the headstock - which I'll also use on the Explorer. Just a small can of course. I cut the headstock with a jigsaw, and then sand the edges with my drum sander. Once done, looks great.

Then came drilling the tuner holes. This Stew Mac tool I have for that is great for this job. This is the second headstock I've done with this and so far they have turned out great. I just need to remember to charge my bloody cordless drill beforehand. By the time I got through the headstock on the 3rd or 4th tuner, I think I had just enough juice left to finish.

So as it stands right now, we're just waiting on the bridge for the Warlock, need to order paint and a headstock decal (this is the last guitar that gets another brand's headstock, I really need to get some CreepingNet headstock logos printed up). The plan is for pink plastic to go with the rest of the stuff - so pink speed knobs, and a pink switch tip.

I also plan to just use the default FreeWay Selector Switch Wiring Diagram for a 2 humbucker guitar for this one, allowing me to use 2 push/pull pots for coil splits. Basically, what I'm creating here, is a "Sleeper" Warlock. Which to me - is fitting considering a Warlock is a type of Wizard type character, and it should be hable to have more spells in it's spells list than neck-both-bridge.

So the next steps will be sanding the neck heel flat with the rest of itself, getting a taller nut (or fabricating my own out of bone or graphite), some finishing tweaks on the black body (ie, fill/paint), maybe staining the back of the neck black (ie woodgrain, but black - for better sweat dissipation but oil-based protection), sanding the headstock flatter and better. And also designing the electronics, which may end up being a bit of...uh....a crossover of the old Warlock and my Tri-Mode designs (need to buy more bulk 500K Pots).

I'm also toying with some other interesting aesthetic additions, possibly a "wrap" over the top and back, and then clearcoat over that (once the finish is sanded smooth). Maybe a pink leopard print or pink crackle one, and match the headstock to it. Then a white B.C. Rich Warlock logo over that (this IS still a B.C. Rich). I want it to be stunning. This guitar will likely be going up for sale, so I want it to look nice, play great, and sound amazingt, and offer something more than your regular $50 pawn-shop-fodder Bronze Warlock does. The Fleor high output humbuckers and the sealed machine heads are already a massive upgrade from the stock B.C. Rich Pickups and Diamondback Tuners this guitar originally had. And the neck seems to be consistant as well. I'm also tempted to do some pink-dot inlays possibly as well, and save the pearl ones for another guitar neck (maybe one I build myself), since they have fallen out a couple times....or even some cool inlays of my own design done with the dremel.

Over the weekend, between bouts of cleaning the garage, I managed to get the Warlock up and playable now. That said, it was not a cakewalk. The nut I had on the neck was too low, so I replaced with a new nut blank from guitar center (That was stupidly expensive), and then proceeded to fuxor that up, then fix it with cyanoacrilate (aka - superglue) and powder from when I was milling the nut. After some refilling and re-slotting - it started working as planned. I also had to get the truss-rod's delicate blaance right.

The chinese Leo Quan clone had a few issues too. The saddles wobble a little bit (might be some re-milling in order, or swapping them out. However, just adding deeper slots got them more than good enough and they sound great so I might leave em', after all, now THIS one is avoiding the sales-block somehow (!?!?).

All the wiring was done Ad-Hock. No diagram, just off the top of my head, and turned out PERFECT. I tried a new "Tri-Mode" setup that gangs the two switches onto one DPDT 3-way on/off/on switch, so now the pickups match modes, which is better for stage performance. The modes are split, humbucker, and "Stratty" - with the Stratty. Honestly, it's kind of hilarious getting Funky Til' Tuesday sounds out of a B.C. Rich Warlock...but man, this thing would do George Clinton proud, which I guess is true to the original B.C. Rich Heritage (They were, after all, a Hippie Sandwhich botique guitar company in the funky 70's). I'm running the original output jack but ordered 10 more new jacks as the original jack is a little....uh...janky. I also built my own jack plate that's smaller than the stock original one out of ABS plastic, and it turned out really nice and very solid. No other plastic fab was needed....though I may get chrome trim rings for it since the black ones are a little too short (or taller Les Paul Style black ones). I Chose to omit the tone control because it's not really needed, and that's nice, because it brings the tone more into a high-gain version of a Gibson SG type territory - a little more bite and growl to it.

What comes next is just tuning and tweaking of the guitar and replacing the output jack. I might just play it and keep it like this for awhile...since I'm kind of liking having a Warlock again for the time being.