Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster P90 – Build – #guitar #guitarist #fender #fendertelecaster

Today on the bench we are talking about the Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster P90. Well, we are talking about what is possible. It is not a product that Fender/Squier sells – yet.

Recently I purchased a Fender Special Run Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster with a Humbucker pickup installed in the neck of the guitar. When I took the pickguard off, I realized they had routed the neck pickup cavity all the way out to P90 dimensions.

Why would they do that unless the possibility of sometime in our future we would see the p90 pickup configuration being made available.

I decided to keep a look out for a body for sale with this exact and new routing. Only about a week later I found a person who had the very Squier Classic Vibe 50s Tele Butterscotch Blonde body that I was looking for.

Since then, I have seen quite a few of them. It appears that this new routing pattern and dimensions seems to be the new norm.

The body showed up. I already had a Tone Rider Hot 90 pickup and all I really needed to complete the build was a pickguard. Impatience coming into play I could only get a red tortoise shell pickguard here in the amount of time I allotted for the build schedule. Meaning that I wanted to build the guitar now. Actually, I think the pickguard looks very cool with the butterscotch blonde body.

I built a new circuit for the guitar that consisted of CTS 500k Solid Shaft Pots, a .022 uF Capacitor, Oak Grigsby three-way switch and a Switch Craft 1/4-inch output jack.

The neck I installed is a used Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster Neck that came off of a Butterscotch Blonde Guitar like this one.

This particular Squier Body is a little heavier than normal bodies from the Classic Vibe series. The guitar weighs in at 8 lbs and 8 ounces and I do not think the P90 pickup added the additional weight.

To match or align the output of the two pickups (Bridge Single Coil and the Neck P90) I ended up lowering the P90 some. The volume that came out of the Tone Rider pickup was pretty intense in comparison to the standard Squier Bridge Telecaster pickup. Once I lowered the neck pickup the two pickups were a little more in balance.

The P90 is crazy bright/clear and punchy. You could play both rhythm and lead easily off this pickup. Kind of makes sense why there are models of guitars with only a single P90. I am really learning how the P90 is really such a versatile pickup.

Together both pickups in the middle position is a really nice playing position while the number one position with just the bridge pickup is traditional telecaster fare.

I know this pickup configuration is not traditional telecaster and I am confident that some folks will not like the idea. I like to experiment and try different combinations of tone and sound.

I think the guitar has an amazing battery of tonal weapons to bring to bear in battle.

Also, in my opinion this looks a lot more tele like than having a humbucker in the neck position.

Just as a follow on. This morning, I was looking at the Squier CV Bodies available for sale on Reverb and eBay it appears as though this change has been made some time ago. I could see p90 sized routing in a lot of the newer CV bodies of different type of telecasters (Thinline, 70s custom, 60s custom, etc) that are available.