Fender US use Oak Grigsby or CRL switches. It’s more about how long they work for before going scratchy and intermittent than anything else. I’ve used both Oak Grigsby and CRL switches and I prefer the feel of CRL, so use those if available. But both are a bit deeper than the kit switches. The kit bodies can be a bit thinner than Fender ones, and the control cavities are often shallower and less wide, so you may need to do some work to make either of those switches fit, especially if you have screening foil or paint in the cavity as you don’t want the switch tabs grounding out.
If the switch is getting messy, then it sounds like you need a solder sucker to clean things up. You should be able to get the switch looking almost like new.
The kit pots and switches should work and sound just fine, but just not for as long as better quality components.
I never use the kit electronics and always use Switchcraft or CRL switches and CTS or Alpha pots for my builds and guitar upgrade work, but that’s by choice. The kit 3-way box switches are of a type that tends to fail very suddenly without warning, and can often leave you with no sound at all, whereas other types of switch might get noisy first before they start to fail to make contact. You don’t want sudden silence mid-gig!
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Originally Posted by McCreed
