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Beginner’s Guide to Upgrading Your Telecaster PART 1

Admin, June 30, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTkIKLCVZdM&showinfo=0&rel=0

In prior Guitar Collector Guy videos, I have used the term “a guitar has good bones.” What I mean by this is that the guitar body and neck are well made and the everything basically works out of the box. I will take this definition one step further in that the builder has also followed known specifications for the dimensions of the bridge, tuners, electronics, and pickups. This will facilitate future modifications to the guitar or what we call modding. If you have this then you have a great guitar platform.

In this video and the videos in this series I am going to focus on the reason, viability, and actual upgrades of a Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster. I could just as easily select many other guitars of other manufacturers like Epiphone and others that also have good bones. What is wonderful with the Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster is you are going to be able to find a plethora of aftermarket parts that are drop in specifications. Meaning you pull the old part off and install the new part and after adjustments you are ready to go.

The Squier line of guitar has really grown up. Originally Squier was seen as a line of guitars that students and beginners would use before maturing and purchasing a more expensive name brand guitar like something from the Fender line of guitars.

Now Squier is starting to be seen more of a quality and affordable guitar that plays is some cases just as well as its more expensive versions like Fender. Working musicians now regularly will take a Squier version of a guitar on tour and to gigs because if it is damaged or stolen you are only out hundreds of dollars instead of thousands of dollars.

The Telecaster is an amazing guitar platform that is so versatile. With the correct (for you) set of pickups and electronics installed the Tele can be used in Jazz, Hard Rock, Punk, Country, or any other Genre of music you care to play.

A third-party industry has grown up around the Tele that offers everything from affordable to expensive components that allow you to modify the guitar to whatever you would like the guitar to be. When I use the term third-party, I mean a company other than the original guitar manufacturer.

When I first started playing guitar, I could not afford name brand guitars until I was in my thirties and finally had the financial wherewithal to buy them without going broke. My first electric guitar was a black Squier Telecaster. Even buying this guitar new was a financial stretch for me at the time. Even though it was a Squier I was so proud to own it. She was such a beauty.

After playing for a while I discovered some of her shortcomings. I did not like the tuners. They seemed to slip like a broken car transmission when turned the tuning knob. What I mean is that when I turned the knob it with would a while before something started to happen – meaning the tuning shaft started to turn.

At the time I did not have the internet so I could just pull up my web browser and google for replacements. I went to the store where I had purchased the guitar from and talked to the guitar tech. I thought he was a god. His name was Gary and everyone in the store told me had had been a guitar tech for bands the likes of the Grateful Dead. He showed me a few sets of tuners that would work, and I picked the least expensive one and went home. With the guitar on a towel on my dining table I removed the strings and tuners and replaced them with the tuners I had just purchased. When I restrung the guitar, I was happy that the tuners I had installed were light years better than what was originally on the guitar from the factory. And the REALLY f’ing cool thing was I had done this.

It is a very different thing to spend $750 to $1000 incrementally over the course of a year or two with an affordable guitar, then it is to plop down the full amount one time for the name brand version. I know, I know a lot of folks will say – just save up and buy the name brand guitar it is so much better. Here is my answer back – you do you and you let me do me.

So, that is the background and the why you would do what I am going to do in this series of videos.

I plan on taking this Squier guitar and replacing the tuners, bridge, electronics, pickups, etc.

First, we will talk about the “why” I am choosing to make a specific upgrade and what I am looking to accomplish.

I will then show you what goes into selecting the correct parts and then how to remove the old parts and install the new parts.

The next video in the series will be focused on tuner issues and problems. Why you would want to replace the tuners and then ultimately what tuners will work as either a drop-in replacement or a replacement that requires some modifications to the guitar.

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