BC Rich Eagle Custom Shop - Leopard
Serial No.:
24027 NM – Made in USA
Bridge:
Kahler Quad Gold
Neck pickup:
EMG 85
Bridge pickup:
EMG 81
Tuners:
Grover Imperial
Construction:
Neck Through
Material specs:
- Alder Wings body
- Maple neck
- Ebony fretboard
- C-shapeNeck
This guitar is where it all started.
I first saw this guitar in a KISS Creatures Of The Night poster special from 1982. It didn’t make much of an impression on me right away, but when I was 15 I bought the KISS Animalize Live Uncensored concert video on VHS. That’s when I fell in love with three guitars.
One was the BC Rich Eagle with the leopard finish, the second was the cracked mirror BC Rich Warlock that Paul Stanley used for his solo section, and the third was the black BC Rich Eagle that Bruce Kulick played on a few songs towards the end of the concert.
When I got to the age where the internet became indispensable and I was earning my own money, I regularly searched online to see if I could track down one of those guitars — but by the time I was around 50, I’d pretty much accepted it was never going to happen. To be honest, I didn’t know anything about the history of any of those guitars either.
In December 2025 I was sitting on the couch with my MacBook, wanting to see whether BC Rich might be making new Eagles. As far as I knew, the model was last produced around 2010 and came out of Korea. The Eagle had always been my favourite BC Rich model.
On the fifth page, the very last guitar, I saw the Leopard Custom Shop listed for sale — and I think my entire postcode area heard me shout “Whaaaaat?” It said only a few were left. I emailed immediately.
After three days with no reply, I emailed a different address at BC Rich. Another three days of nothing. I was getting pretty nervous and had to get creative.
Then it hit me that a longtime friend of mine works at Bax Shop in Amsterdam and lives a few streets away. So I called him and asked whether they imported BC Rich. He asked which guitar I meant. When I said a BC Rich Eagle in the Paul Stanley finish, he asked: “Is it a Custom Shop model?” Then he told me he knew the builder personally — Neal Moser. How great is that?
He gave me Neal’s contact details and I messaged him straight away. Two or three hours later Neal replied and confirmed that he had indeed built it. He said he’d have Bill Xavier, BC Rich’s CEO, email me. And sure enough, twenty minutes later I got a mail from Bill. I replied saying I wanted the Leopard, and asked how many were left. It turned out only one had ever been produced, because of the rare parts and high cost.
We made a deal, and on Christmas Eve the guitar was delivered to my door.
While I waited, I dug deep into the history of Paul’s Leopard, and it turns out it has been refinished several times — so it hasn’t existed in that form for 41 years. Around 2017 BC Rich made a few reissues, but those deviated quite a bit from the original. The only accurate reproduction ever made is the one I bought. So I own the only example in the world.
I’m still trying to source a booster switch, as mine is missing. I asked Neal why, and he explained it wasn’t mentioned in the specs BC Rich gave him for building this reissue. But since I want it to be 1:1 identical to Paul’s, I’m going to install one.
There’s a video on YouTube where PJ from BC Rich shows the guitar, and that confirms it really is the only one, because the guitar hanging on my wall has that exact serial number.