Hi and welcome Johnny.
Your tribute Tele sounds like a good plan.
I did the TLA-1 which had bridge holes predrilled and they were fine. Those saddles also have got a lot of room for adjustment. Still best to measure the nut to bridge length and make sure the high E is the correct 648 mm (and the others are 648 + - my low E was 652 mm!).

Vices - sorry no idea! I have a cheap one (30 years old) bolted onto a saw horse. I have used a cheap work table (about $20 from green shed) and a quick release clamp (with plastic end pieces) to cut my headstock. I was quite surprised at how hard the maple headstock was to cut by hand with a scroll saw. Very easy with a jigsaw though.

I used Ebony timbermate on my TLA-1 build which has an ash body and it did a great job of highlighting the grain. I then used FW jarrah stain with tru-oil as the top coats.

I hope this helps.