Ducati 748 pushing the patience....

So once again somebody tried to steal the Duc. getting rather tiresome as they epic fail and leave me to pick up the parts.. this time a screwed up ignition lock and front brake disc.
The bike was put in to fix the front fork oil seal which had it fail the MOT and now that's done through a shop at silly money, the bike hasn't been the same since..

So, I'm now changed the regulator/rectifier and added a new battery to the list. I thought that would fix the issue of misfiring when warm, or the fact that I would charge the old battery it would be flat in as many seconds as it takes to scribble this...

I've checked everything with a volt meter and apparently it was charging on tickover and at around 2500 rpm...so you would have thought that was okay..but no. the battery simply died. So I bought a new battery...on the way to work the usual shit started with misfiring and general fucking around...

looking around there are several reasons for this, which just makes me more inclined to sell the bike. Don't have time for this kind of shit. temp sensors, fuel filters embedded in the petrol tank that need changed as they can draw a charge due to the fuel injector system, and bla bla Italian fucking shite electrics.. They obviously put more money into the design than the electrics that have a design fault from the start with thin wires from the generator burning out and bla bla...And yes, mine is a three phase system which is meant to be the improved version...god help any two phase persons..

I ride bikes. A lot of "bike" riders leave them in the garage and wear the leather jacket to the bar explaining how much fun their 40 minutes a week is so awesome...well bollox, rain wind or shine I need my two wheels to work!

rant over! 

80's Floyd Strat

Right, the initial plan was to make a replica of Zappas yellow strat. Obviously to a point as sticking in pre-amps and equalizers and batteries requires more effort...

Anyway, having looked around for a body , things got a bit expensive if I was gonna go new with a relic scheme. So when this solid ash body came up I thought I'd just build a similar guitar., I was fortunate enough to find two 80s Seymour Duncan vintage hot stacks and I already had an 80s HS3 Dimarzio which balances up the neck pickup.
With a floyd sitting topside without a route as done with all the later strat bodies, the string height is slightly higher, but that seems to add to the solid ash sustain and the hot stacks that seem to pick up everything including radio one... harmonics across the board and when you add in any distortion things gets really heavy without getting muddy.

Most of the plastic is from the 80s and works well with the salmon gloss (see-thru 2 grain) colour.

The neck is pretty fat which also assists a huge sound.

The wiring is setup with tone on the bridge pup. Interesting when you use 2 position between the two hot stacks. Currently wearing 10's.

Really enjoying the ride!

80's Hot Stacks (seymour duncan)

Took some months of waiting, and finally I've managed to collect some 80s original Seymour Duncan hot stacks. So here they are. As used by Zappa, one in the bridge and one in the middle position. It's either gonna be a Dimarzio HS-3 or a Malmsteen HS-4 in the neck. 

Due to the budgets involved, I'll wait and see what I do with the 80's solid ash I picked up. salmon gloss it's pretty nice as it is and I'm not sure if it's worth going through the hassle of stripping it and getting a respray. We shall see. it's a nice weight and together with the 80s floyd, will do the job nicely.

right then, just need to wait until the second pup arrives and then the soldering iron comes out..

and now with the floyd bridge and neck..it's not the yellow of Franks but it's gonna be a similar setup

Works OW01

Barr the Öhlins forks and the dry clutch, my project is basically the same. Oh, and the works YEC swing-arm. Question is if I should source a YZF swingarm or just keep the standard OW01 arm..

The YEC frame strengtheners on the side of the frame are the same. The airbox looks the same...mine is a Harris item..And of course the radiator is slightly different, mine is a YEC item from a YZF by the mounts on it..

Dark months on the horizon

right then, it's soon the busy period in Sweden as everything starts getting dark earlier....apparently for most this is a hyper depressing time which explains the manic reactions in the summer months, but for me it means the end of the rugby season and into the projex season.

The Ow01 project was shelved for a few reasons. Due to an issue with the works head and setup I had to take out the fully tuned owl engine and stick in the extra engine I got with the bike which is a YZF750 engine.To solve the issue I needed another OW01 cylinder head which was just purchased around 1 minute ago. The works cams will slot right in and the issues I had should be sorted.

So it's head down to get the project on the race engine finished. Otherwise the rest of the bike is pretty much ready.

98 Peavey EVH Hardtail

I used to own a Pat Pend Peavey EVH quilt top with a floyd.
Lovely guitar , but one I stop using so much. Not sure why, but just wasn't that keen on the floyd.
So, a mate said the best guitar he'd ever played for tone was the hard tail version of the wolfgang.

So been looking for one for a while and one finally came up on the bay.

The Spirit of Semtex

back in around '93 we were at the day of champions at Donnington park.
After a rather fast get-off at the Craner Curves due to our sponsor giving us the wrong brake fluid which ensured the ISR 6 pots didn't actually work when it mattered, we were standing there in the rain with KR tape at the ready when a Suzuki Grand Prix technician came over and asked if we needed some help.
He was very keen on harleys and mentioned his hill climber which was built up by himself with leftovers from the Suzuki grand Prix bike parts.
Paddy then said, if it was raining, we could borrow some grand prix wets for the qualifier. We took off the marvics and gave them to the techs and got them back with GP wets. We were almost not allowed to even look at these tyres as the compound was that secret..
After the rain stopped and the track dried they were off quicker than you could say "wot"?

The bike that Paddy built is was and still is a total beast. This was back in the day when 4 valve heads by fuelling were very exotic and untried and nothing had ever been built for a big twin. My own racing bike had some very special parts, like carbon fibre pushrods and hand made alloy cylinders and heads..but this beast was different. It's all in the name: "the spirit of Semtex". Nice to see a more recent pic of the bike as she's been in bits, along with Paddy, after hill climbing.

Rocking Horse crap...

just as you think there is no chance , one turns up on fleabay...
These usually only can be found as a top and bottom yoke, connected together with a rather expensive titanium shaft..
As my original OW01 top yoke doesn't have a cast for an ignition barrel, I've been racking my brains for a while..but here it is, time to finish off the project.

"Franx" project

one step closer.

80's build.

So on this build i decided to go the way I would have probably gone back in the early 80s.

The neck is a very nicely made modern c neck from the Strat elite. Adding this to a lightweight 62ri body got me thinking about going mint green again but then I decided to stick on the 70's pick guard  with 70's black original covers and knobs as well as a 70's RI bridge with brass charvel string holders. 

The Elite Stratocasters of 83/84 are responsible for the neck and it's absolute class. The back is stripped of all laquer , so feels awesome and the schaller/Fender tuners are a class act on their own. beautifully cast. As written elsewhere, the quality of these guitars was on par with the custom shop and going on the quality of the neck and tuners I can understand why people are scripting as such.

Bridge and neck pickups are vintage Dimarzio and she's wired up with a tone on bridge and neck pickups with middle pickup running straight through. middle pup is an alnico 2 SD. As per the norm all the screws are relic so she looks as if she could easily have been from the early eighties except for the body shape. Those with a keen eye will notice the hole which hasn't got a screw in it as 70's pick guards don't fit directly on 11 hole 62 bodies.

80's Floyd Rose for Zappa project sourced.

Taking shape..

not quite right but has all the necessary parts to start with...

Plan wasn't to buy two necks within a few days...but this came up on the bay and looking at the cost I thought it was worth the money and the effort. It ticks off most of the boxes for the Zappa Strat project and I'm not worried about the quality of the Allparts necks which are made Japan. Those tuners and nut are about half the cost of the rest of the neck. Medium C neck with a compound radius.
Gloss finish also ticks the box.

first things first....

right then, Zappa guitar deco on the bucket list, but first things first. Been busy over the dark months with mixing up and updating as well as facelifting some of the guitars and I'm currently faced with a guitar body that I purchased back in 2009 which deserves a quality rebuild as it used to be one of my favourite guitars but has now had parts removed for greater projects.

the body is an aged olympic white (more vanilla) 62RI , weighing in at 3lbs 15 oz. So for a few weeks I've been looking around for a neck I'd be happy about to join up on this project. There have been some really nice necks up for sale but unfortunately the price tags have been out of the budget for this one and none of the necks had that "something" that I need to convince me to take the plunge..
..until this one came up.

Was rather surprised this hadn't been snapped up. really nice looking piece of maple. the other pictures revealed the varnish on the back of the neck had been played off , so the neck had a classic relic appearance which normally costs top dollar to buy if it hasn't been done naturally.

obviously before I buy anything I make sure I do some research.
So, this came off one of Dan Smiths era oddities in 1983, the American Fender Elite Strat.
reading through some reviews, there appears to be several owners of these guitars who swear by them. Personally I'm not too keen on the look of these guitars, but this neck caught my attention , especially with it's rather unusual neck profile , a 12" radius wide and shallow neck.

really keen on this project.

Grabbed the original tuners as well:

Coming out of winter...

There is one more guitar project that I've been looking at doing for a while. But it's defo got to be a serious attempt at making a decent replica, otherwise it wouldn't be right.

what an amazing guitar the Frank Zappa butterscotch blondie is. My plan is not to make an exact replica as I'm not too keen as he was on getting the electronics sorted out to ensure the sound was right for every room he played in , but the idea is to make a guitar that has the same running gear and looks like it's been around since the 80's, so slightly reliced.
Floyd rose on a flush body of course, and the body contour will be a 50's as opposed to what the original had.
The gears are already in motion...updates to follow...

Håckes Cup tournement winners 2015

For the third year in a row my club squad won the sevens tournament at the Håckes Cup in Wexio.

HoneyBurst Relic Strat.

wont get anything genuinly closer to an SRV "Lenny" style guitar. Obviously "Lenny" wasn't a honeyburst...would have been nicer if it had been...
Specs are high, weight is low.
Body weighs in at 3lbs 5oz.
Bridge is custom shop
Pickups are custom wound 59's SRV sliders
brown cap under the bonnet
FATBOY mint green relic pickguard , knobs  (not sure about the pup covers)
Vintage wiring
And then we come to the neck: It's an 80's era Schecter maple neck with fender on the headstock.
rumours about that this is the same style of neck that Billy Gibbons gave to SRV and which he stuck on "Lenny". I'm not entirely sure if this is the guitar he stuck the schecter neck on, but suffice to say it's an awesome neck from the glory years of Schecter.

Contador and his passion for Oranges...

So for the past months I've been taking care of a horse.
I have to say I was mildly surprised when I discovered he kinda goes nutz when the oranges come out...

G000543 facelift

delighted with the custom made pick guard that arrived yesterday from California.
this guitar is an amazing player , so it was only fair to give her a facelift and I like the result.

obviously the options of pickups and pots were endless, but I kept the guitar as I liked her best, one humbucker in the tail with one volume pot. The humbucker is out of a 1978 greco JB and sounds awesome.