I am starting to have a love affair with Fender Squier guitars. I have not had this much fun modifying guitars in a long while. They are inexpensive and to be honest sound great for the most part without modification. I have had folks leave negative comments on videos where they see me taking a guitar that let’s say costs less than $200 and then I put more than $200 into the guitar in improvements. I do not think they get it at all.

There are three basic reasons that folks buy a low-cost guitar and over the course of a year or so spend hundreds more to modify the guitar.

Reason 1) A person has a limited income and cannot afford to plop down $500 or $2000 for a ready-made high-end guitar. They can however afford to pay a little bit at a time, buying a part here and there as money is available, building upon a low-cost platform (like a Squier) that eventually allows them to own a guitar that sounds like a guitar that they quite honestly cannot afford.

Reason 2) People like to build things. There is immense pride in taking something that does not cost a lot to begin with and building something that sounds exceptional and then being able to stand back and look at it with pride and think – “I did that.”

Reason 3) Most folks that can afford a high-end ready-made guitar do not feel comfortable in making modifications to the guitar that reduces the value or collectability.

On the channel I have modded so far, a Squier Stratocaster and Telecaster both of the Affinity line and wanted to try one of the more expensive Squier models.

I wanted to take a Fender Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster body and then completely build it out using made in Fender Mexico and US parts and see what turns out in the end.


I paid $170 for a brand new Squier Classic Vibe 50s body.

The body of an electric guitar is kind of the hub in a wheel. What I mean is that everything for the most part connects to the body.

The question I am trying to answer in this project is can I take a Fender (either MIM or US) neck, bridge, pickguard, electronics, and pickups and populate the Squier body with these parts without modification either the body or the part to make them fit.

What this tells me if I am successful is whether or not all of the plethora of aftermarket parts that are on the market that are made for the Fender MIM or US made telecasters will also work on the Squier Classic Vibe guitar platform.

I started my project by adding a Fender American Vintage 3-Saddle Telecaster Bridge that I had installed a very hot Fender Tele bridge pickup out of a Player Telecaster. All of the holes aligned perfectly. The six string holes and four screw holes all mated perfectly.

Next, I installed a Fender pickguard (albeit an 8 hole when I really needed a 5 hole and have already ordered one). The pickguard had a Fender MIM Telecaster Neck pickup installed already.

Then I installed the output jack cup and loaded control plate, and all liked up and fit perfectly.

I installed the two pickup hot wires and the two ground wires. One point to note. I had combined both the bridge pickup and the bridge ground into one wire leading to the control cavity. I also had combined the beck pickup ground and the guitar body ground into a single wire so at the end of the day all I had to solder to the back of the control pot was two ground wires.

I seated the neck into the neck cavity and fit and aligned perfectly. I installed the neck plate and the four neck screws.

Next to complete the overall look of the guitar I installed a vintage string tree and then took the Fender Modern tuners off of the MIM neck and installed the Fender Classic Tuning Machine Heads that are a drop in replacement for the modern 2 pin tuners in a 100 mm hole but look like the classic slotted head tuners.

Next, I had to check the neck relief and adjust the truss rod, followed by setting up the string height by adjusting the three brass saddles, and finally I checked the intonation and found I only needed to adjust the saddle for the Low e and a strings.

Sitting back and admiring the project’s outcome I have a very pretty, playable guitar that is completely parts interchangeable with a Fender MIM or US made vintage Telecaster. The body is beauty for any amount I paid for it. Please know that $170 for a body this nice looking is a great deal when you pay $259 for a MIM Fender Telecaster body and $449 for a US Fender Telecaster body.

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