Mine's old too -- I'm guessing mid-80's. Maybe that is important.

I find I can usually get by with 1 click on the rocky, unless the first shot was really tight.

I don't have any idea why this would be true. Maybe the water is losing pressure by cooling in the grouphead on the first shot? Pulling a blank doesn't seem to help, tho. The first real shot will always require a finer grind than the second. Go figure.

I guess this is a problem of the early europiccolos - otherwise lots of other pavoni owners would be reporting the same problem.

My impression is that the problem is caused by the machine getting too hot after the first shot, rather than it cooling down or losing pressure.

If I let my machine overheat - eg by letting it boil for 5 minutes, with steam sizzling from the valve at the top - then my first shot will choke the machine, even though the grind and tamp would normally be just right. So its always struck me as an overheating problem.

What if you got another double filter basket, so you can pull two shots very quickly after each other? That way maybe the over-heating wouldn't be as much of a problem. You could tamp the first one and fill the second one with coffee; then, after you've pulled the first shot, you could - if need be - readjust your tamp for the second shot.

Then again, this would only work if you didn't need to re-adjust the grinder in between shots. Tricky question, this...

ritske