Squier Classic Vibes (50s edition) Telecaster Upgrades? (My profile Pic).

The Fender Vintage 52 knobs can be had for a decent price on eBay, guitar center or reverb. They look the part.

On my older Classic Vibe the knobs were press fit on split shaft pots, though. I don’t know If they are still sold that way. Since the Fender knobs use a set screw, I went and upgraded the entire switch plate with new pots and switch. The whole swap was less than $40 for what ends up US spec parts.

The bridge on mine wasn’t awful, but you can upgrade just the saddles to, for example, Wilkinson compensated brass saddles for a very reasonable price.

I haven’t heard the new Squier CV VB pickups so I can’t comment on yours On my older vintage blond classic vibe the pickups are hotter Alnico 3 and vey similar to Tonerider hot classics. I absolutely left them in.

Lastly, on the vintage blond I went with a parchment pickguard as the finish looks more like a ‘54-‘56 in my opinion.

I have a few high end guitars and at this point I’ll put this one up against any of them without a doubt. I’ve gigged with this without hesitation.

 

The new CV 50s of either color are Fender designed alnico 5 pickups that are low wind vintage style. On the previous CV series, the BSB one had the vintage style alnico 5s, equivalent to Tonerider's Vintage Plus set, and the White Blonde had hotter alnico 3s that are equivalent to Tonerider's Hot Classic set.
Fender's Twisted Tele set is their most affordable, and has a Strat sounding neck pickup and a beefy bridge pickup. Similar overwound and affordable sets can be had from the likes of the aforementioned Tonerider, Rose, GFS, and Cavalier, as well as others.

 

Yes to Wilkinson compensated brass saddles.. also check out Wilkinson tuners as well- reasonable price, great quality. They should have the set of vintage ones you are looking for-

For some hotter, rockin’ pickups- check out the Bootstrap “Pretzel” Tele pickups. They are wound in a garage in Ohio, get lots of love here, and check in at about $50 a set!! Here’s a link.
https://bootstrappickups.com/products/bootstrap-pretzel-pups

get a switchcraft jack, and a few full size CTS pots, maybe get an Oak-Grigsby 4-way switch your allow series wiring the pickups to get stealth humbucker tones.

Whew!!! Of course you don’t have to do it all at once.

I’m working on a Squier Bullet Tele project- got the pots and Wilkinson “EZ lock” tuners, a graphtek nut, and some Bootstrap “Original Recipe” AlNiCo III pickups (basically Nocaster pickups at 1/3 the price!). Keep posting- hope this helps!
Carl (C-Note)

 

Gotoh In-Tune Compensated Saddles For Tele @ StewMac

 

I have a set of those on my Baja. They are very good.

 

'spruce body'. Is that a new one?
My Classic Vibe 50 VB is pine... but it is an old one, (2009).

 

On my CV 50's Blonde, majick toan faeries sprinkled toan dust on the stock pickups. I set the heights and left well alone afterwards. They sound wonderful ( especially the neck ) and there's no way they're getting replaced. If I was more of a heavy rock music noodler, I'd go for a four-way switch, but I noodle dad-blues, classic rock, Wilko and three chord punk. It has so many sounds in it, I often discover something new.
Saddles. Personal choice. Currently mine has E+A - stock, D+g - Wilkinson compensated, b + e - stock. It works for me.
Tuners. I replaced mine with some near identical ones bar the buttons for purely cosmetic reasons. I like the white buttons. I'm shallow. Other than a variance in 'turning' weight, I never had a problem with the stock ones.
Nut. Stock, little bit of fettling and some graphite powder.
Output socket. Electrosocket.
I switched the 'guard out for the mint from my CVC, and switched the necks around. Both cosmetic.
Pots. Never had a problem with CV pots.

 

Hit up @Kmaxbrady for his Bensonite Fat Saddles. They are compensated for correct intonation, and super comfortable if you do a lot of palm muting at the bridge. Plus, they look super cool.

 

This kit has the 4 way switch if that's is what you are asking. Pots aren't specific to 3, 4 or 5 way.

https://guitarelectronics.com/tele-electronics-kit-w-cts-pro-pots-4-way-mod-switch/

 

To each his own, but if you like the tone of the pickups, why not just add a clean boost pedal in front of the amp? That'll give you all the oomph you could ever want. It doesn't need to be a pedal labeled "Clean Boost." Almost any pedal with an output level control will do the job well enough for you to test the concept. Anything like a Tubescreamer, Blues Driver, American Sound, etc., with the gain and tone neutral and "volume" or "output level" boosted is effectively a clean boost and can easily overdrive your amplifier's preamp.

 

On my CV Esquire I changed the capacitor to a 25 i think it was, changed the saddles to compensated brass, changed the knobs to a vintage rounded style and stuck a stacked humbucker in it. I have had it for a year now and love the changes. However, I recently stuck the stock saddles back in as my strings moved a lot on the compensated ones and I didn't have the materials to channel them properly.