Tele Body's

[Gasp100]

I'm having a hell of a time trying to sell 2 sweet MIJ guitars and the neck on one of them is just "special" so I'm contemplating building a mutt Tele around that neck.
Of course on ebay the Stratosphere seems to be the king of necks and bodies. I'm not sure about their pricing, but clearly they have the largest selection. I think Maple + Ash is a great combo, but I won't discount Alder if I find something nice.
My main question is do people really get hung up with MIM vs. MIJ vs. MIA when it comes to the body? They usually list the country of origin, but there are a few nicely priced T bodies with a humbucker neck route <which would be great so I could do standard, P90 or humbucker, right?> that LOOK really nice. It says Fender American Standard - so the Standard is actually MIM?
They also have really nice nitro highway one bodies, but where are they made?
25% cashback on ebay right now so I want to pull the trigger asap.

[Gasp100]

Got one... "Old" Candy Apple Red CIJ 71 reissue to go with a killer CIJ 52RI Maple neck. This guitar should be jamming when I'm done with it!
:banana

[big mike]

Nice! I love CAR.

[mgarrison99]

I'm totally building a mutt. I bought a Tokai 52RI in butterscotch and then traded out the neck for a MIM 50's reissue. I have way too much in it now to get what I paid for it, but I like the look and love the feel of these tinted necks. Whatever floats your boat, right?
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u53/mgarrison99/Accessories/6a65_1.jpg
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u53/mgarrison99/Guitars/Tokai%20Goldstar%20Sound%2052RI/c66d_12.jpg

[jpervin]

My main question is do people really get hung up with MIM vs. MIJ vs. MIA when it comes to the body? They usually list the country of origin, but there are a few nicely priced T bodies with a humbucker neck route <which would be great so I could do standard, P90 or humbucker, right?> that LOOK really nice. It says Fender American Standard - so the Standard is actually MIM?

I know the MIM Teles have the universal neck rout. I thought the MIAs just had the single coil rout, but I could be wrong.
AFAIK, the Standards are made in California. Hence the higher price.

[Polynitro]

I got CIJ Tele body off the 'Sphere and its a good ash body, really light (4.5lbs) and makes a good 7lbs Esquire...The only bad thing is that I used all USA parts which because CIJ use metric the pickguard holes and control plate holes don't line up perfectly...they line up well enough but its not perfect. (the bridge however does line up perfectly with a US52RI bridge)Compared to my us52ri the us body resonates more, and has a better more natural woody tone to it, not sure if its the wood or weight (the us52 weighs 8lbs vs 7lbs for the CIJ) In the pic you can see the bottom right edge of the pickguard gets too close to the edge of the body but its hardly noticeable. I aslo had to sand the guard around the neck pocket a little (I used a US Esquire guard)
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p161/cgravier_bucket/blackguard3.jpg