Shawn does make some incredible instruments.
He did a setup on my strat a while back and let me play around with his creations - wow.

Funnily enough I have a VS100n on my strat -could you not find one of the allen screws at a hardware store?, they don't seem to be too specialised.

Sir, how much do you want for one of your allen screws? ? ?

i'll pop into the local hardware stores today... I pray they keep wilkinson spares ?

well they probably won't have a wilkinson one but it is just an allen screw - guess it depends on how fussy you are about keeping it original....

Yes it's a standard size... but only one of the "Standards". ? The Wilkinsons use metric sizes. You can sometimes get replacements in the music stores and good techs will usually have spares for both the Asian gear (metric) and the US Fenders (which use Imperial sizes).

If you get stuck, give me a shout as I should have a few sets of saddles lying around from replacing them with Graph Tech String Savers.

Sebastian wrote:
I recently aquired myself a new guitar. Namely a Shawn Oneill custom job.

Pics, or it doesn't really exist! ?

Are you working at the music shop this weekend? If so maybe you could bring it in, I'd love to see it. I'll bring my new acquisition with too.

Hey Shaun! sorry bud, I missed this post or else I would have gladly brought it in! It still needs some switches I have on order (they've taken forbloodyever to get here...) then Shawn will do his own set of photos of the thing. Thats how he rolls, and I'll be in serious trouble with him if I do otherwise ? until then, the guitar remains a mystery... (Unless you contact me about a gig I'll use it in next saturday *Alan please don't kick me off!!!!* ? )

As for the Allen screw, turns out to be a standard sized screw used for holding PC towers together, so I didn't even not-have-one for 24 hours ?

Alan, your words on Graph Tech got me googling, and I have found something questionably better... TUSQ VS100 saddles!!!! $65 though, so they can wait a month or twelve ?

Sebastian wrote: Alan, your words on Graph Tech got me googling, and I have found something questionably better... TUSQ VS100 saddles!!!! $65 though, so they can wait a month or twelve ?

Marshall Music have just got their stock in, so may be worth checking out how much you can get them for locally. I actually use the Ghost saddles, which are the String Savers with piezos built in.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:

Sebastian wrote: Alan, your words on Graph Tech got me googling, and I have found something questionably better... TUSQ VS100 saddles!!!! $65 though, so they can wait a month or twelve ?

Marshall Music have just got their stock in, so may be worth checking out how much you can get them for locally. I actually use the Ghost saddles, which are the String Savers with piezos built in.

how would you compare this to the fishman powerbridge?
Much of a muchness? Pros/cons?
And can they be used on a standard bridge?

I upgraded from the Fishman - the Ghost system has a far better sound, expandable to 13-pin for Guitar synth/VG and the piezos don't die (which the Fishmans do with monotonous regularity).

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: I upgraded from the Fishman - the Ghost system has a far better sound, expandable to 13-pin for Guitar synth/VG and the piezos don't die (which the Fishmans do with monotonous regularity).

Thanks... I will keep that in mind...
And could they be used on the gotoh tele bridge?

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar,_non-trem_bridges/Gotoh_Modern_Bridge_for_Tele.html

I would like to have a guitar built up, and have this kind of functionality... And if this is the best between the fishman, the LR Baggs and Graphtech, then i suppose its the one to go for...

Yes, the six saddle Tele bridge is fine - same saddles as the "import" Strats, just with a longer intonation screw (IIRC). The only bridge which they do not cater for is the vintage three saddle Tele, because there is a lot of crosstalk between strings.

[hijack]
I think someone (Alan?) needs to play some music recorded through normal pickups ... and then the same thing recorded through piezo's, so that I can learn the difference in sound
[/hijack]

Wizard wrote: [hijack]
I think someone (Alan?) needs to play some music recorded through normal pickups ... and then the same thing recorded through piezo's, so that I can learn the difference in sound
[/hijack]

With Blended sounds too...

but yes, that would be great to hear!

Comparisons with pickups depend on the position and type of pickup - after all, there's a world of difference between a bridge single-coil and a neck 'bucker. There is more difference from the magnetics than just the tone though. The dynamic range of piezos is much wider (play softly, the magnetics dominate, play hard and the piezos pop out of the blend). Also, the attack is much faster and the frequency range has both an extended high and low end.

It's not a true acoustic sound (not enough body and resonance in the midrange), but naturally it's almost exactly what I will EQ an acoustic to when blending with an electric guitar in a pop/rock mix. I usually scoop out the lower mids a bit from the piezos to clear space for the electric, but otherwise, the two sounds complement each other well.

Many of my comp entries have piezo mixed in to the electric sound:

• http://ratcliffe.co.za/music/a_alan_open_tuned.mp3 - pretty subtle, adding high end "gloss" to the extreme left with lots of reverb.
• http://ratcliffe.co.za/music/alan_blue_cocktail.mp3 - echoed intro strumming, all the delay is piezo on top of a phased but otherwise dry electric guitar sound. Listen for the accents where the piezos jump out a bit more than the electric.
• http://ratcliffe.co.za/music/alan_spaghetti.mp3 - all the rhythm is piezo.
• http://ratcliffe.co.za/music/a_alan_beyond_the_edge.mp3 - both the delays (left and right) are piezo, while the electric is right up the middle. The modulation on the delays does soften the piezo attack a bit though.
• http://ratcliffe.co.za/music/a_alan_big_intro.mp3 - good example of the piezos jumping out when played harder.

I have a series of articles with clips up at http://ratcliffe.co.za/articles/piezo3.shtml and http://ratcliffe.co.za/articles/piezo4.shtml. Or if you just want to browse the clips without explanations http://ratcliffe.co.za/music/piezo/. These clips aren't the best tone, but the differences are pretty clear.

Also delayed is : http://ratcliffe.co.za/music/guitarforum/skanky_thing.mp3, you can hear the extended low end in the percussion (you can also minimize the low "thump" with your mixer's highpass filter if you don't want it). The piezos are the exact same take as the electric rhythm.

When I get a chance I'll record something with hard panning and minimal effects. Don't hold your breath this week though.

I will officially classify that as a very comprehensive answer ... ?

Thanks Alan !!

I have almost the same problem .. but in my case the screws were overtightened and the hex holes were rounded out.. If these are indeed a standard screw can someone post the actual size?