Hi all, I play a Highway One Stratocaster straight through a Mesa Express 550, no pedals. When I strum a chord that plays the high E, fretted or open, I'm getting a high pitched ringing behind the chord notes. I haven't had much luck dialing it out with the knobs, hoping someone out there might have an idea what it may be coming from. Thanks.

Pickups too high or a groove in the saddle would be my first port of call. Then i'd look at the string height.

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The pickups magnectic force being to close to the string can cause a false harmonic. That is why pickups with stronger magnets will be set futher away from the stings, the pull causes them to vibrate in a unnatural manner causing unwanted harmonics or double notes.

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Why would it be the amp? as much as i dislike mesa amps they are pretty bomb proof. Its more likely to be the guitar setup causing it. Note it only happens on chord playing, maybe the op hits chords harder than notes. Any ringing would only come through after the initial note had sounded giving the impression of inbetween notes.
Either way theres 2 questions atleast to answer.
Does it happen when using the guitar with other amps?
Does it happen when using other guitars with the mesa?

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Thanks for the great suggestions. I do tend to hit chords pretty hard and I don't get the harmonics if you will when playing single notes. A technique issue I'm working on for sure. I'll try the setup suggestions because I don't have another guitar or amp to troubleshoot with. I have a shop that's done a setup for me before, so if I can't sort it out, I can take all my gear down and ask them to help me out.

Just lower the pickups mate forget the saddle idea. For it to occurr inbetween all strings its not a grooved saddle or even a loose screw causing it. Either of those would only sound on a particular note or string.

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The pickup could be just a little to high on the high E side. You want to get the pup balanced up and down and you also want the high E and the low E to be the same volume/sustain. So you may only need to lower one side of the pup. My 2cents.

I was able to play through another amp and got the same harmonic, so that points to the guitar. I lowered the pickups and still couldn't shake it, so I looked at the bridge saddle and it does appear to be grooved where the string sits. What have any of you done to smooth out the saddle, or is this luthier-level work? Also, for future preventive maintenance, how can I keep the bridge saddle from wearing this way? I've had the guitar less than a year.

I'm far from being a guitar tech. Since you bought the guitar less than a year ago grab your receipt and take it back to the dealer and then it's his problem. You may want to watch or ask about fixing the problem for future use. Wish you good things my friend! Let us know how things turn out, please!

Try a finger nail file.

Or swap the offending saddle with one of the saddles of a thicker string. The thicker string wont sit in the groove, which is what causes the problem.

Your going to end up filling the saddle though, swapping them round is only a temporary fix. Unless you replace them.

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My Highway 1 strat makes wierd noises, buzzing like when you have springs vibrating. I finally isolated it to those bent steele saddles Fender hypes. My opinion is - they ain't all that. The guitar is superb otherwise, but I'm going to change the saddles to a set of solid zinc ones that I have.

What these original saddles did on mine was if the saddle isn't sitting level then 1 of the 2 supporting screws vibrates. The problem got worse if I dived on the bar.

Idunno if that is what yours is doing, but try to hit a note and then hold down on the saddle behind the string to see if it effects the noise. I bet you'll be surprised.

If it's just the groove as stated before then the problem will prolly reoccure.

Let me know what you find.

Bob