MV front stand

One of those JV August '82 SQUIER Strats

This came up a week ago on the bay. export model with Japanese pick guard and pickups. Clean export model with a neck date from august 82. Did some research and apparently the dubious models came out in october, and later. Anything pre-october is meant to be high build. Apparently the first run and second run are the same guitar but with different decals on the neck, which of course means the collectors pay more for the first run.

meanwhile...the ZXR750R bits n bobs project suddenly got ignited...

when I saw this creation.
I have a stack of parts currently on the kitchen floor. All parts from a ZXR750R/K project that I started after my own original R/K was stolen for the second time.....so I started buying parts...

It's about time I started bolting things together...this looks awesome...

Even more changes required.

So.....the never ending story for the MV.
Once you drive it day to day, you'll notice just how hot the engines get quickly.
Apparently this is down to a poor design of the original technical specs of the water pumps. Apparently the housing units and the impellers had too large a gap, which meant at low revs the pressure wouldn't be great enough to get the juice flowing at the required flow.

So, MV did an upgrade impeller. Depending on what you read, some say it works, other say it doesn't.
So, you either spend on that or replace it with a DC water pump that will increase flow by 46%.

No brainer..

Next Up...Rear Hub...

No genuine surprise that the hub on the MV requires changing.
Apparently they collapse. Not good. My own has had a bearing change, but after 35,000km MV state you have to change the hub the lifecycle is over at that point.

So , looking around it'll probably be one of these. dear, yes. But whats the value of a life?

MV Factory windup front stand p/n 800095807

So, the MV. Currently she's looking at hitting the 35,000km on the tach and even though I got a whole bunch of receipts to show how much has gone into the bike, there are a few things that require work. 

To start with I've purchased new break pads, new front bearings. I looked at the front stand I had for the Ducati and realised it wouldn't do the job for the MV.

Suddenly the front stand pictured came up on the local selling site. a shop was selling out new MV parts as they would stop being a distributor. so 50% on all genuine MV parts. Should make everything easier.

At the same time I found another discounted item, a genuine MV Brutale bike cover. Also a discount item and by all accounts the bikes gonna look awesome once she goes under wraps for the winter.

MV Agusta f4 Brutale 750

So...the Ducati 748 stolen and recovered...except this time it never came back to me as the insurance company kept her as she had so much broken plastic...sorry t see her go...as always

So I was in the market for another bike and for a while I was looking at a KTM. Then this MV came up. never even knew this bike existed...the more I looked, the more I got interested...just looking at the spec sheet was just silly...
so, off I went on a train with a bike helmet, up north for 6 hours to buy the beast and drive back...as usual, not really thinking...another Italian...wet weather? usual issues with electrics...who cares, just looking at the design and spec sheet..I mean to say, even the initial engine design was by Ferrari and based on 4 cylinders of their worst F1 car of 92....but whatever, it's what I wanted and knew i would need to get the hands dirty...and I wasn't wrong.

usual issues ...join a forum, find out the list of what goes wrong....after a few rain storms the relay electrical box fries...it kills the battery which is already long past it's sale date...so:
new battery- check
new electrical box - check

oh, but wait, this unit I bought does everything except the front headlight...It's then I read that "two" boxes were built and to ensure one orders the correct box for the 750.....ffs...
I find the correct box at an exceptional price and order. I get a message from the company based in germany that they are now on holiday and return in two weeks... I also get a message that MV are going through reconstruction with AMG and that parts are taking longer to get..ffs...4 weeks without a bike in the summer months...

So I drive with the box and no headlight. hashtag limitations...

Currently on the kitchen table are a set of koyo front wheel bearings as there seems to be a noise coming from the front wheel that sounds a bit strange...a fuel filter and o-ring and soon I'll expect some issues with the rear hub as apparently they also get a bit iffy after the mileage the bike has.

so, was it worth it? Oh yes. this ranks as one of the most enjoyable bikes I've ever owned. It's power band is more akin to a two stroke than a four stroke and it just feels right. Once the CAT was dumped and a mid-pipe fitted, it seemed to breath better and with the noise induction sounding like a 60's formula one car, you just want to keep riding the beast!

¨the next step up is the 910s, but I'd sacrifice the torque for the free revving 750 smaller engine.

The Contador bust on the way

Lemmy passes away at the age of 70

woke up to the news that lemmy of Motorhead passed away.

I first saw and met Motorhead back in 1982 on the Iron Fist tour. back then it was Lemmy, Fast Eddie and Phil on the drums. With the drummer passing away two weeks ago , they seem to be heading off together. Obviously the original line-up broke up after the iron Fist tour and to be honest I stopped listening after that.
Lemmy leaves a legacy and quite rightly so.

a couple of pedals for xmas.....BOSS DD-2 blue label and Velvet Minotaur

I have to say I'm not a huge fan of pedals. I'm not that far advanced perhaps...it's enough to plug into the amp...
..however, I do like the odd pedal and currently looped into the jubilee is an analog CE-2, a TE looper and a Korg guitar tuner. Front of amp is a Jam wahwah. I was really keen on finding a delay that I knew I would be happy with, so the other day a Boss DD-2 came up at the right price as it was scratched and didn't have it's box and original receipt...(??) so that will be added into the loop with the CE-2.

So, for some bizarre and reason that cannot be explained...I came across the price of the Klon Centaur. Now, I think pretty much everybody  knows or has listened to the Klon. It's the mutha of all tone pedals which is basically why they now command such high prices on the bay. the same price as a second hand car...

..and just like the Dumble amps that preceeded...Bill Finnagan also covered his secrets with black goo. This of course will never stop the hardcore pedalisters and right enough, the klon centaur schematic is now readily available...or is it? Soon enough you get linked up to the Illuminati and you read about diodes that are unavailable as a giant gold dragon has them in a hill somewhere and nobody can find that sound until the hobbits and dwarfs break into the mountain and steal some...

..then, you start listening to the comparison clips on youtube...never easy when listening through the mac pro...however, you soon realise that some of the pedals are really really close to the original..
Some claim to be EXACT copies in every single way with regards outputs and all the rest...but hold on..what about the hobbits and dwarfs....believe it or not, the more you read the forums the more the arguments are laid down about russian de/9 diodes and resistors aren't the same as lord of the rings diodes and bla bla...so...anyway, after listening and reading and reading and listening..It came down to basically two options that I felt were in the right price bracket and by all accounts had enough of the klone of the klon to entice me to bring one home...
...it was either gonna be the Arc Klone V2 or the Velvet Minotaur. The price was almost the same...one had free shipping and one didn't...one was in europe so no import tax...the other wasn't..
so..on the way from Greece is the Velvet Minotaur:

comparison:-
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv4e7EqWWSI

Marshall 5110 ripped and used as 1x12 speaker cabinet

okay, the Marshall 5110 as a combo is a decent solid state combo from the 80s. But, I have a silver jubilee head and I wanted to run it through a practice 1x12 cabinet. So I decided to use the combo as the foundations as a cabinet and purchased the required fitting gear from Earcandy.

Part one is complete. However, I'm not convinced by the Celestion G12M 70 4ohm speaker, so the hunt is on for a replacement. I may just remove a speaker out of the 2x12 Jube cabinet.

Having looked around the net there are a lot of decent speaker manufacturers out there. One company that has impressed is Scumback. I'll update if and when I decide what is gonna replace the G12M 70.

Greco Custom Order 70's

Well the double neck arrived eventually.
I say that as it only took a day from japan, but 7 days at the customs due to a fuck up..

So I was happy to finally go and pick it up. And I have to say I'm more than happy with what was in the box!

I'm scoured the net to see if there are any other double necks with the same features but nothing has come up. As you can see, there are a few deviations to the norm. Apparently guitars were made at the same place Greco and Ibanez were made. That actually explains a few things.
The pickups are Ibanez super 70's. covered and uncovered. what an impressive humbucker! I did some reading about them and apparently they are unpotted and use alnico 8 for the magnets.
The positional markers on both necks are also a mystery. look class I reckon, and would rather have them like this than the std. Gibson copy. Bit more JM in these..
I haven't been able to find one other Mij double neck with the same fenderesque pickup switches in the middle scratch plate. I wonder if this was also a one-off?
Then you have the tails that are longer down the body. Apparently Jimmy page ordered his one-off EDS with this as one got better sustain. Once again, whoever ordered this back in the day knew what he/she wanted. According to the advert the necks are maple and the body Mahogany.
Finally, you have 18 Greco top end metal tulip tuners at the end of necks. quality written all over them, also high end parts and once again I can't find the same type when scouring the net.

So I reckon I found a real pearl of a double neck. I'd love to know who ordered it initially.
sounds fantastic and plays really easy. The setup is spot on.

Greco double neck

had no intentions to buy a Greco double neck lawsuit copy, but this caught my eye on the bay and I started checking it out at it's source.
As already mentioned, I don't like the idea of getting a guitar that is exactly the same as Jimmy page, or beck or any of those gurus. they could basically plug into a potato chip and make anything sound good.
I liked the fact that the pattern markers weren't the norm. I also like the separate switches for the pickups  at the rear. reading the jap site gave more info. As per the norm, this was a special order from around 77. What makes it rather rarer is the fact that most necks were bolt-ons when this was made, but this came as a set-neck. So, I think this special order was worth the money the japanese site was asking, around half of the cost on ebay....

Having looked around at Double-necks, I noticed the biggest differences with most are where the tail is in relation to the rest of the body. Jimmy Pages Gibson has the tail further down the body which apparently gives the guitar more sustain than the versions where the tails sit further up.