[Doug R]

The guitar is a MIM '98 Nashville Deluxe model. I bought it new. I have had the pickguard off only once. It still has the original neck pickup, although I swapped out the bridge pickup and bridge plate and saddles for old-style '52 reissue parts. I don't remember for sure, but I think the neck pickup was probably just mounted to the pickguard.
As for the sound, it's hard to tell if it gets through to the amp, but the buzzing on certain notes has been bugging me for some time. I've been trying to get the strings set-up better, not too high, but not too low, and I kept thinking the buzz was a string buzzing out. If I just hold a finger against the chrome pickup, the buzzing stops. That's why I thought I might just slide a little piece of a matchbook cover or something in there to mute the rattling. I kind of hate to have to take it all apart again for such a little problem. It's just a little sloppy where it goes through the cut-out in the pickguard. I'm not sure changing the springs for rubber tube would even help if it's just vibrating against one side of the pickguard.