Squier Classic Vibe Tele with double-bound alder goodness. $175 out the door in a crappy gig bag.

It's a fantastic playing guitar, and will be the backup to my new fancy guitar coming in the (hopefully near) future. Dead-stock it is pretty decent, but it plays a lot better than it sounds (plugged in, unplugged it's very resonant). The pickups are just dull as shit, but a restring might bring some life back into them. Also the threaded-barrel saddles are pretty bleh, brass might be a better choice but I think a more modern setup would suit me better.

Gonna mod the shit out of it me'thinks. I'm planning on swapping out the bridge and 3 barrel saddles for 6 SS saddles, dropping rails in the bridge position and a full-sized bucker in the neck. Might throw a toggle switch in between the volume and tone knobs for coil-splitting (I don't like push-pull pots), and I'll probably reverse the control panel.

All said and done, it should be a fantastic Tele for under $500.

Graphite saddles are always an option. I am a fan. Very non-traditional, but they do cut down on string breakage. There's also the compensated brass barrels that'll intonate a little more nicely than the traditional ones, if you're going for a more typical Tele thing. Though if you're doing 'buckers...

It is certainly a nice looking guitar, though. And if it plays well and sounds good unplugged, just ditch the electronics and you should have something solid.

All and all, a fine score. I like the binding.

Eh I have had a Tele with the Wilkinson Compensated brass saddles and always had intonation issues. Though I never took it in for a proper setup so maybe Ill give them another shot.

The bounded sunburst rosewood telecaster is kind of like, the ultimate look for a tele in my books. It's a hawt axe for sure.

If you ever want to replace the pickups I ordered Bill Lawrence Keystones for mine and they sound great. Good gain tones but my god, the clean tones are just fantastic.

Edit: Disregard pickup advice, now that I've read your plans, unless you want to keep a stock look and semi-traditional sound suddenly