dont rule out squire completely.
one of my favourite high gain tones ive gotten was with a stock squire vintage modified.
and this was with the stock stacked duncan designed pickup(bridge) through a DIY fuzz pedal of mine.
[video=youtube;jqHHHvIMSvY]
since then ive had an itch for teles with a nice dollop of gain. but when i foolishly sold the squire, i had a hard time finding a suitable "fender" replacement. the neck and quality of the VM was just great. in the endeded up putting a frankenstein tele together (HWY1+MIM)
[video=youtube;nrI6Hb7yIwk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrI6Hb7yIwk
telecasters...not just for country bumpking/twangbangers anymore...