Epiphone Emperor Regent - As Good As a Gibson?

[randyc]

Interesting stuff, John. Did your uncle ride an AJS ? Seems like all the Speedway dudes did. Lots of AJS parts fit my Matchless and were free for the asking from a local Honda dealer who wanted to clean out his storage area.

No accidents or injuries here but I never pushed the limit. The X-6 was plenty fast for me (much faster than the Matchless in short straights) and when I watch the current road racers lift the front wheel in 6th gear, it makes my knees tremble at the thought of how touchy the throttle control has gotta' be on the superbikes !

cheers

[lpdeluxe]

Not an AJS, a JAP (James A Prestwich), British-made, basically a rigid bicycle frame with an alcohol-burning long stroke 500cc single of ca. 50 HP. Talk about lifting the front wheel! But they had only one speed, and the only brake was the kill switch. Lord have mercy.

JAPs were standard wear for speedway racers into the '60s, but eventually Rotax took over. It was primarily popular in England and Australia, so the "world championship" was not a misnomer like "world series." An 8th or 10th-mile oval track with a cinder surface, it rewarded aggression and a careless disregard for one's one safety. Need I add, I never tried it.

Jack and Cordy were born in Scotland, and exploited their success into an Indian dealership (and later a Plymouth dealership in Pasadena CA. As a young teen ager I sold tickets to the bleachers they set up in the parking lot along Colorado Blvd for people to watch the Rose Parade. We got there at 3 am and people were waiting for us.

The AJS 7R was the "boy racer" and was identical to the G50 except for the bore and stroke, which yielded 350 (or thereabouts) cc, compared to the 500cc G50, and the finish on the tank, which was black with gold striping on the AJS and maroon and gold on the Matchless. (I almost bought a G45 that had been raced at the big Dodge City AMA race in the '50s -- it was a G50 with a production-based 500 twin, back when the AMA ran OHV 500s against 750 flatheads (read: Harley-Davidson). The respective classes were formally known as "Junior" (350) and "Senior" (500) but I'm sure you knew that. The Senior class became what's now known as F1.

[randyc]

Very interesting, John. Yes, I knew about the JAP bikes and carelessly confused them with AJS. I love old British iron - you mentioned your Scot uncles which reminded me of a wonderful old machine I got to ride some years back - a Greeves 250 !

Went to Donner Summit a couple of years ago to see American Championship Trials. What an incredible change in technology as compared to the old Greeves, which were state of the art for their time ! World class trials riders can do things now that only horses could imitate.

Anyway, I doubt that anyone else is interested in this material, my apologies to all for the distraction !

Thanks John, good stuff, you have a great heritage (pun unintended)

[RAQ]

Very interesting, John. Yes, I knew about the JAP bikes and carelessly confused them with AJS. I love old British iron - you mentioned your Scot uncles which reminded me of a wonderful old machine I got to ride some years back - a Greeves 250 !

Went to Donner Summit a couple of years ago to see American Championship Trials. What an incredible change in technology as compared to the old Greeves, which were state of the art for their time ! World class trials riders can do things now that only horses could imitate.

Anyway, I doubt that anyone else is interested in this material, my apologies to all for the distraction !

Thanks John, good stuff, you have a great heritage (pun unintended)

AJS? Matchless? 7R? G50? This is like sitting in a bar, late at night, listening to you guys talking about the old days ... best thread for ages. Maybe the fact that jazz guitar is my retirement project (to keep my mind active) has something to do with it. I had an e-mail a couple of weeks ago (haven't replied yet) raising the issue of the 40th reunion for the founder members of the East Midlands (UK) AJS & Matchless Owners Club. I was there, at the cafe on the A38 - but have since drifted away from two wheels and on to six strings. (My last Matchless, a G12 engine in a 'competition' frame, went a few years ago to fund a guitar or two). We used to gather at the Darley Moor hairpin and cheer on those 7R's and breath in the fumes of Castrol R. If you guys love old Britich single-cylinder motorcyles, you can't really have much to argue about - and I should be taking more notice of what you say about guitars ... knowing the difference betwen a 7R and a G50 makes you guys experts in Life.

Which means - even though I have the 137 and the American Tele tucked away - I have bought too many budget guitars; even though I have learned a lot about guitars doing it. I'm no good at all at negotiating deals, and second-hand Epis are not the kind of thing you can negotiate with anyway, so I've given two or three guitars away to good causes lately (that eases my conscience a little for buying them in the first place, and gets someone else started); but I need to thin the herd. My only defence is that by researching and modifying a few Epis, I have learned and taught myself enough to trust my judgement on Gibsons. Although I'm heading into old age, I'm still a beginner when it comes to jazz guitars; and beginners, of all ages, have things to learn.

[lpdeluxe]

AJS? Matchless? 7R? G50? This is like sitting in a bar, late at night, listening to you guys talking about the old days ... best thread for ages. Maybe the fact that jazz guitar is my retirement project (to keep my mind active) has something to do with it. I had an e-mail a couple of weeks ago (haven't replied yet) raising the issue of the 40th reunion for the founder members of the East Midlands (UK) AJS & Matchless Owners Club. I was there, at the cafe on the A38 - but have since drifted away from two wheels and on to six strings. (My last Matchless, a G12 engine in a 'competition' frame, went a few years ago to fund a guitar or two). We used to gather at the Darley Moor hairpin and cheer on those 7R's and breath in the fumes of Castrol R. If you guys love old Britich single-cylinder motorcyles, you can't really have much to argue about - and I should be taking more notice of what you say about guitars ... knowing the difference betwen a 7R and a G50 makes you guys experts in Life.

Which means - even though I have the 137 and the American Tele tucked away - I have bought too many budget guitars; even though I have learned a lot about guitars doing it. I'm no good at all at negotiating deals, and second-hand Epis are not the kind of thing you can negotiate with anyway, so I've given two or three guitars away to good causes lately (that eases my conscience a little for buying them in the first place, and gets someone else started); but I need to thin the herd. My only defence is that by researching and modifying a few Epis, I have learned and taught myself enough to trust my judgement on Gibsons. Although I'm heading into old age, I'm still a beginner when it comes to jazz guitars; and beginners, of all ages, have things to learn.

Needless to say, I ran Castrol R just for the aroma. And I've had my share of BSA, Royal Enfield, and Ariel putters in my past. Which makes me think of a crucial difference between guitar collectors and the collectors of old Brit bikes: the guitar guys put 'em in glass cases; the bike guys go out and race the snot out of them.

This is a thread about tools, I think, and our attitudes about them.

As you said, they used to have wheels and now have strings. And they require a lot less upkeep.

[RAQ]

Needless to say, I ran Castrol R just for the aroma. And I've had my share of BSA, Royal Enfield, and Ariel putters in my past. Which makes me think of a crucial difference between guitar collectors and the collectors of old Brit bikes: the guitar guys put 'em in glass cases; the bike guys go out and race the snot out of them.

This is a thread about tools, I think, and our attitudes about them.

As you said, they used to have wheels and now have strings. And they require a lot less upkeep.

Well, lpdeluxe, I think you are really a philosopher - our attitide to tools, indeed.

I used to push an old two-stroke grass mower around on Sunday afternoon with a spoonful of 'R' in the mixture - just so I could walk around behind that smell.

My wife tolerates my guitar collection in a way she found difficult to do with bikes. I think she thinks it's fairly harmless and keeps me out of trouble - and even I can't fall off an Epi Emperor.

[RAQ]

This is a thread about tools, I think, and our attitudes about them.

I've just ambled down to my workshop to see if I've got any 'R' left, but I'm just down to my last two tins of GP50 ... I'm keeping it because I'm sure I'll find a use for it. Lubricating guitar tuners maybe.

Can't stop thinking about this now - I reckon the link, at least in my case, is about 'fettling'. Just fiddling with machinery, almost for the sake of it, to constantly amend and improve. I didn't need to put that humbucker in the Epi ... but it's like having a spare engine and an old frame lying about the place. Something mysterious just compells me to put the two together.

This morning I restrung the Gibson. I reversed the direction of the strings over the top of the stopbar. Never done this before, but I just didn't like the look of the angle, and the forces, involved by raising the stopbar high enough for the strings to clear the T-O-M. Been bothering me for weeks. This had nothing to do with tone or sustain of a 'min7b5' - it was just pure tinkering. Think I'll wipe it down with an oily rag later.

[lpdeluxe]

What a fine word "fettling" is! It provides cover for all sorts of tinkering, piddling, surreptitiously-putting-something-back-to-rights-after-previously-fettling-almost-past-saving, and many other activities.

This is part of the appeal of Epiphones and suchlike: I happily replaced (oops, I mean, "fettled") all the electronics , which I would not do on my Gibson -- partly because, of course, the Gibson was satisfactory to begin with, but also because I could do it to the Epi without worrying about resale value.

So is the guitar a platform for fettling, or a tool for creating music? Both, obviously, and there's no bright line between one suitable for the former use compared to the latter. I find myself fettling my basses more than my current herd of guitars (but I expect to install a Bigsby on my SG next week), replacing pickups and capacitors and whatnot. One bass sports a fretless replacement neck, another a different bridge, pickup, and output jack. But now I find myself at a crossroads: I just acquired a new Fender American Vintage '57 Precision, and it is my perfect bass. Now what? I guess I'll have to follow RandyC's lead and get out the soldering iron and "fettle" my amps. Luckily, I have a project studio in one bedroom and it lends itself to endless substitutions, upgrades, swaps -- in short, fettling.

Thank you for the kind words.

[randyc]

I've just ambled down to my workshop to see if I've got any 'R' left, but I'm just down to my last two tins of GP50 ... I'm keeping it because I'm sure I'll find a use for it. Lubricating guitar tuners maybe.

Can't stop thinking about this now - I reckon the link, at least in my case, is about 'fettling'. Just fiddling with machinery, almost for the sake of it, to constantly amend and improve. I didn't need to put that humbucker in the Epi ... but it's like having a spare engine and an old frame lying about the place. Something mysterious just compells me to put the two together.

This morning I restrung the Gibson. I reversed the direction of the strings over the top of the stopbar. Never done this before, but I just didn't like the look of the angle, and the forces, involved by raising the stopbar high enough for the strings to clear the T-O-M. Been bothering me for weeks. This had nothing to do with tone or sustain of a 'min7b5' - it was just pure tinkering. Think I'll wipe it down with an oily rag later.

Man, I love that smell too, all of my motorcycles have been 2-strokes except for the G-50, the Victor and the current KLX-250. That omits the two (yes 2) X-6 Hustlers, the Yamaha Twin Jet 100, Yamaha 305 Big Bear Scrambler, the Suzuki 500 Titan and a boxed-set of a Bultaco Sherpa S 200.

I've often thought about the variables involved in changing the angle of the guitar strings as they cross the bridge. Super 400's had the ability to adjust that angle using a hex key through the hole in the tailpiece. L-4 and L-5 models have the same hole in the tailpiece but, as far as I know, it wasn't used for tailpiece angle adjustment, at least in the production models. It's always dangerous to trust my memory but I believe that is correct.

Ahhh, the smell of Castrol on the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest day in the year for dirt biking with the lot that I rode with. We'd gather for the three-day holiday at a place called Clear Creek, which is BLM (publicly owned) land just south of Hollister, CA. A beautiful place with endless miles of wilderness broken only by the trails made by zinging two-strokes Three days of riding, beer drinking and telling lies around the fire at night. Great memories.

Cheers, guys !

[lpdeluxe]

Randy, you are right about the trials bikes. A friend, an accomplished dirt racer, entered a trials back in the day (early '70s) and reported to me later than he had never felt so humbled in a motorcycle event. I've seen the modern variety on TV, and you're right, although "goat" might be substituted for "horse."

My first racer was a Bultaco 200cc Metralla that I ran in the prod class and also occasionally used on the street. It topped out at 90, but you could run through most of the turns at Willow at that speed, so the lap times were low.

Your earlier mention of Greeves brought back some long-buried images. Greeves built a production racer with the usual Villiers two-stroke. The typical exhaust was a widely flared megaphone maybe 12" from the exhaust port. Quite a distinctive sound. Like most boutique Brits of the day, cleverness substituted for complexity.

[RAQ]

I made a brief comeback in my 40's aboard a TY250 Yammy trials iron. It looked so easy. It was a disaster. I had no idea how fast the scenery could rush past you at 5mph. I think it hastened my switch to six strings.

Excellent, excellent, responses by the way gentlemen. I sense bikers and guitarists of mature years throughout our respective lands leaning back in their chairs and nodding wisely - with those that have them puffing on pipes.

[randyc]

The Metralla was a sweet bike, all Bultacos were a constant source of amazement to me in that their state of the art performance originated from such a primitive "factory". (Sort of like the tales of Afghan tribal gunsmiths making modern firearms with hand-tools.)

BUT my favorite Bultaco had to be the Matisse, isn't that the one in the Rickman frame ? Or - even better - a Triumph Desert Racer in a Rickman frame. Or a Matchless G-80 in a Rickman frame, get the trend here ?

[RAQ]

... telling lies around the fire at night.

Fine words - fine words - you're bringing tears to my eyes.

[lpdeluxe]

I made a brief comeback in my 40's aboard a TY250 Yammy trials iron. It looked so easy. It was a disaster. I had no idea how fast the scenery could rush past you at 5mph. I think it hastened my switch to six strings.

Excellent, excellent, responses by the way gentlemen. I sense bikers and guitarists of mature years throughout our respective lands leaning back in their chairs and nodding wisely - with those that have them puffing on pipes.

Speaking for myself, talking about biking is much easier than riding, these days.

The Metralla was a sweet bike, all Bultacos were a constant source of amazement to me in that their state of the art performance originated from such a primitive "factory". (Sort of like the tales of Afghan tribal gunsmiths making modern firearms with hand-tools.)

BUT my favorite Bultaco had to be the Matisse, isn't that the one in the Rickman frame ? Or - even better - a Triumph Desert Racer in a Rickman frame. Or a Matchless G-80 in a Rickman frame, get the trend here ?

A small, but significant correction: "Matisse" was a French artist (Henri Matisse, 1869-1954); the Metisse was the Rickman special using various donor engines. The significance of the different spelling is that "metisse" is the feminine form of "mongrel."

[randyc]

yep, my bad ...

[lpdeluxe]

No bad, just another opportunity to repeat the Rickman Brothers' joke of naming their hybrid motorcycles "mongrel b*tch."

[mangotango]

On the subject of bikes and relatives - this guy is my family's claim to fame.

Geoff Duke - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I remember from my youth holidays in the Isle of Man, walking where these guys rode at ridiculous speeds, wondering how the hell they weren't killed. Of course, some were - many deaths during the TT's history, all in pursuit of a simple pastime. Strange creatures we are.

[lpdeluxe]

That's terrific. Of course, I am familiar with Geoff Duke, one of the giants of his era (and one of a long line, still continuing, of Brits going quickly on two wheels).

Back in my misspent youth, the dream was to see the Isle of Man in person, but perhaps it's better that other priorities intervened -- I might have gotten addicted. I can only imagine what it was like to lap there at the ton in the fog....

I'm getting too old.

[RAQ]

Back in my misspent youth, the dream was to see the Isle of Man in person, but perhaps it's better that other priorities intervened -- I might have gotten addicted. I can only imagine what it was like to lap there at the ton in the fog....

I'm getting too old.

No - you can never be too old - given the alternative. I think dreams are best left as dreams (I don't include ambitions and goals here). Dreams, like meeting one's heroes, are best not fulfullied - the reality can only ever be a disappointment, because that's what dreams are: a projected unreality. I always fancied a Lotus 7 (that fabulous motorcyle on four wheels), but wholly impractical. My love affair with the Lotus 7 only continues because I worship it from afar. I can afford one now (just about), sometimes think of buying one, but I just know that owning one will ruin the mystique - that's why I'm buying all those guitars, it's my Lotus 7 money put to better use.

[lpdeluxe]

Haha. I owned an MG TD at one point, when I was younger. A few years ago I visited a friend who had a "replica" fibreglass-bodied vaguely MG-looking thing on a modern chassis. I told him I had once owned the real thing, and he invited me to look it over.

Well, it was just all wrong! Weather sealing, electric wipers, a radio, doors that mated with the body -- all the details were wrong. The real thing was a rolling do-it-yourself project, with Lucas electrics, two carburetors that didn't speak to each other, oxcart suspension, and a top that only slowed the rain pouring into the car (it didn't fill up the interior, because of all the holes in the floor boards), and those delightful side curtains. In short, it had none of the charm of the real thing.

But such joys are best experienced in our youth, before creature comfort ruins our taste for the strenuous life.

[mangotango]

Yeh, but even though I've got older, and supposedly become respectable with a proper jub, one of the good things about said job is that occasionally I get invites to days out from clients, and one day last summer, I went to one of these days:

Caterham Cars - Designed for racing, built for living

where a nice man called Graham showed me how to chuck one of these babies hard into a corner at a silly speed and drift it round a racetrack without breaking it or killing myself.....as much fun as you've ever had with your clothes on.

[RAQ]

Yeh, but even though I've got older, and supposedly become respectable with a proper jub, one of the good things about said job is that occasionally I get invites to days out from clients, and one day last summer, I went to one of these days:

Caterham Cars - Designed for racing, built for living

where a nice man called Graham showed me how to chuck one of these babies hard into a corner at a silly speed and drift it round a racetrack without breaking it or killing myself.....as much fun as you've ever had with your clothes on.

Well - you lucky devil. I did get as far as going down to the showroom for a visit once, but the sheer impracticality of it (at the time) as our second car (which is what it would have been) made me see sense. My two-wheeled days included a Velocette Venom (500 single). Everybody with a Venom wanted the racing 'Thruxton' version ... until they bought one. I had a black & gold one - although they also did a blue & silver. Looked great; sounded fantastic; but virtually unridable on public roads - at least in traffic. I suspect the same would be true of the Seven.

One the other hand - after learning to adjust the infamous Velocette clutch, guitar truss rods are a piece of cake.

None of this, I suppose, really masks my envy.

[RAQ]

Haha. I owned an MG TD at one point, when I was younger. A few years ago I visited a friend who had a "replica" fibreglass-bodied vaguely MG-looking thing on a modern chassis.

You see - people will keep trying to make cheap copies of classic originals .

[randyc]

The IOM battles between Honda, Yamaha and Moto-Guzzi. Agostini was a fine rider but Mike Hailwood was THE MAN, IMO. Tiny little cylinders in the Japanese bikes - but LOTS of them - revving up to 18,000 RPM. Those were the days. Now, they all look/sound/perform much the same ...

[Archie]

I had a BSA Victor back in 1970. One day I was riding uphill at full chat and the exhaust valve introduced itself to the piston.

Now I have a 2006 Moto Guzzi. Much better all round.