Re: Tone difference between mounting to strat pickguard and strat without pickguard?
In theory there are all sorts of reasons why one might sound different to another, in practice it's very hard to tell the difference as there are many other factors that swamp the effect.
Yes, a pickup that is solidly mounted to the body is less likely to suffer from interference effects caused by a resonating scratchplate but how often and how much does a scratchplate resonate? There may be a difference in sustain but this would be overwhelmed by the damping effect of a badly fitted string.
It's well known that part of the telecaster's peculiar scream is the result of bridge plate resonance so no-one can legitimately say there is no noticeable effect, it's just very subtle.
I once worked on a Washburn which had a strange resonance when you stood in front of the stack. It turned out that the bridge pickup was resonating on its springs. It was a ring mounted humbucker but the design of the guitar meant that the pickup sat almost clear of its body cavity so it didn't benefit from any damping.
I cured it by replacing the springs with silicon tubing for better harmonic damping and packing the body cavity with foam to break up the standing wave and provide lateral support for the pickup.
. If it sounds good, it sounds good.
