I kid you not- the anodized aluminum pickguard is causing my Strat to squeal when I turn it up loud.
This is how it happened: I was sick of waiting around until I could afford the Al 'guard so I slapped this Strat together & used a mint green 'guard & only fastened it w/the screws that lined up w/a '57 style pattern. This caused the 'guard to buckle a tiny bit & made the p'ups sit close enough to the strings to cause stratitis. It didn't matter, though, because it was just a short term fix so I could get it up & running.
I finally bought the Al 'guard & installed it this week. I adjusted the p/ups low because that's how I like them. As I was playing it this evening, I first noticed that the pickguard is very "touch sensitive", so to speak. Any scratching or noise from my fingers on it comes through the p'ups. I just attributed this to the extra-rigid nature of the aluminum. But then when I hit the overdrive it let out a sound like a tin whistle.
I'm posting this here in case anyone has had experience w/this. I'm thinking about making a cardboard "shield" out of a cereal box or something to go between the pickguard & the body in the hopes that it may act as a dampener or something, but I don't know yet if it will work. It's really weird. I mean, it's not like it is magnetic or anything. Why do you suppose it would do this?
Looks pretty killer, anyhow. And that's what really counts