If you ever have to remove the pickguard again, slacken the strings, stick a capo on the neck and then just take the neck off. No need to take all the strings off when you're going to take the neck off too.
The now tentatively named Black Strat of Chimey Doom performed flawlessly at practice the other night, except for leaving me with aching back for the rest of the evening. It sounds amazing. I can't get over how good these pups sound for such little money.
I was playing around with some U2 shit with that guitar and the HD 500 and I crap you negative, The Edge himself would have been hard pressed to tell the difference.