ok, i know what it is. i get those overtones when i use my rangemaster. when certain notes or chords are struck you can hear them. i don't think they sound bad, more like a "haunting" sound. a buddy of mine said it was a banshee scream. Rory Gallagher would get it on some of his recordings. one in perticular is "I Fall Apart". you can hear them from about the middle on. you need a slightly driven amp and a booster. single coils help or hurt which ever you perfer.

Thanks for all the help guys. When I originally bought the guitar it was advertised new unused on EBAY. I got the "banshee wail" then. I investigated and found that the seller had replaced all the electronics with cheap generic equivalents. I was playing through a Hughes and Kettner solid state amp and mesa boogie V- Twin preamp. I set about replacing all the electronics with genuine fender parts. I had pots and switch from a highway one with grease bucket circuitry. I also had custom shop texas specials. I replaced the grease bucket with the standard .22 capacitor. I recently got the hr-5 r which is brand new. I realise that the new tubes may warm up after playing in, but the new amp really accentuated the ice picky problem which I had kinda learned to live with. It just gave me new impetus to hunt down the problem once and for all . I thought that the trem claw earth connection looked like a dry joint so I reflowed it yesterday. I also heard that fitting the trem bar also helps . So I did that.
The trem bar seemed to make no difference. Reflowing the joint seemed to help for the top two strings but I still get the problem on the bottom four.
I shall keep searching today.

Thanks for the Rory Gallagher tip. Great song. Spent most of the day learning it. He does get a hint of the sounds i am getting half way through his solo and I do believe he used a rangemaster too. However my sounds are way worse than that. It sounds like some leprechaun is hitting a tambourine every time I strike a note unless the tones controls are 4 or less. This gives me a very small usable range on overdrive channel. On clean its fine and I don't want to lose the glassy bite either. I am thinking I nay have to raise the value of the tone pot capcitor.

i hear you with the Rory song. yeh, the light wailing he gets is cool but you may have had some bad wiring in your guitar. i hope you get it all fixed and keep learning Rory's songs. good luck.

I am strictly a beginner but I had recently, in that last 48 hours seen mention of "Wolf tones" to be heard while setting intonation of a guitar so I can relate and semi-understand where your coming from. This link may, or may not be useful in the hunting down of your problem. Hopefully so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_interval

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I believe that Jimi, Stevie, Jeff, Robert, Hubert, Les, Leo and the "Duck" are all looking down on Joe B. saying "Holy smokes that dude got some stuff going on!"

Check out the cause:
http://crossroadsguitarfestival.com/

OK here's the latest. I fitted a second string tree and checked the tension on the truss rod nut - it was tight. I opened up the guitar and checked all wiring against fender wiring diagram - all fine. I refllowed all solder joints and earth connections. I glued and screwed an alumimium plate under the body earth lug in the bridge pickup routing cavity. I put soft foam beneath all the pickups and stuffed the controls cavity with foam to prevent any wires vibrating. I fitted small foam pads under the tone cap and treble bleed cap to prevent oscillations there. I also packed a small bulge in the pickguard near the left side of the neck pickup. i also fittrd a foam earplug above the nut to dampen the bottom two strings above the nut. I scratched the trem springs where they touch the trem claw and the trem block to improve electrical connections there. I could see evidence of wax in the windings so they have definitely been potted.

I can now turn up the tone controls to about 7 without the effects appearing. although they still appear on the bottom three strings, turning down to 4 gets rid of all unwanted noise on all strings.

I am beginning to think it's just a 'lively' guitar. I can feel vibrations all through the body and neck whilst playing. I think it's better to get unwanted highs and be able to filter them rather than have the guitar be a plank and be muddy on tone settings of 10. I comfort myself with the thoughts that like a thoroughbred racehorse it's a little hard to tame. I can get a nice compromise with the tones I want on 4-7 range. It sounds lovely on clean on all settings. I do play with a thick Ivory pick and like to dig in at times to get a wide dynamic range. Even on clean channel when picking hard the guitar gets a bite that makes you blink. I love that part.
I can learn to live with it. Thanks for all the feedback.