I don't see BMI (Beck Musical Instrument) getting much mention here on the forum, unless one is for sale.I don't know or understand why.
38-39 years old - The serial number on my guitar is 916. Another guy on the forum has one with a S/N about 100 more than mine, and his was bought from Zane Beck in 1983. I'm thinking mine was made in late '82 or early '83. I don't know how many Zane and company was turning out back then. My guitar is a 2 raise and 2 lower changer, and originally had 3 knee levers.
I'm working on tuning the new levers at this time, and I think I need to adjust it for more travel in the action.
I find these BMI guitars to be exceptionally well built, and maybe even over engineered to an extent. All the metal is thick. The key head is heavy duty, and the bridge/pickup support is very substantial as well. It's built like a tank, and I think I could stand on top of it and it would support my 255 lbs.
The following restoration work was done:
> Polished to a mirror finish all over, using Mothers Aluminum and Mag Polish (Great stuff). Everything I could get to was highly polished by hand. The pedal bar was getting dull and scratched up, so I sanded it using a sanding block, and 3 grades of wet/dry sandpaper. I finished it off with 1000 grit, then 2000, and then went to the Mothers polish. The legs, pedals, pedal blocks, and pedal bar are all polished to almost a mirror finish.
> Cleaned and polished the pedal rods and connectors.
> Polished the changer fingers, and the roller nuts.
> The black anodized area on the front of the bridge support was removed and polished. It looks better polished than black. I left the back side of the bridge black. That anodization is extremely hard to get off if doing it by hand.
> New BMI OEM fret board. The old fret board, on it before the initial refurbishment, was replaced with a Sho-Bud fret board, which was correct for the scale, but I wanted it original. The plastic Sho-Bud fret board peeled off without any problems.The new fret board is a bit wider at the nut or key head end, because the BMI neck is now a little wider. It still fits well, the scale is correct, and it looks nice, and original.
> New BMI OEM RKR, lowering 2 and 9.
> Additional pull on the RKL, and the previous pull was changed too. The RKL now raises 1 and 7.
> All new changer return springs, and return spring screws.
> New nylon tuning nuts. The raises are white, and the lowers are either gray or black.
> Fresh set of Live Steel Strings
> Installed a new pickup - George L - E66.
> Installed a new Switchcraft 1/4" jack.
> Changed out some old tarnishing screws with stainless steel screws.
> Lubed roller nuts and the changer fingers with RemOil with Teflon (Remington Gun Oil)
I've gotten kind of attached to this old BMI. I can't even account for how many hours I spent working on this guitar. Mechanics aren't hard to work on, but I've spent a lot of work on cleaning and polishing.
Some photos of the final product are attached.
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