I've looked into it more; the Qld Maple body is not cut, so I'd need to cut it (easy to do at the school where I do some councelling/chaplaincy work) and router out the pickup cavities - but I'm not sure that I'll be at the school in the time frame I'm thinking of making this guitar (starting a few years down the track, when life settles down a bit). I'd also probably struggle drilling the tunnels for the wiring from the pup cavities to the control panel, not sure how I'd do that.

There's a site based in NZ with cheap shipping to Aus that sells pre-cut and routered All Parts tele bodies (Ash) and pre finished (nitro) and fretted All Parts necks, both are stamped 'licensed by Fender', and both would be affordable. So yeah adaptable, I'd probably end up making this as a 2nd tele, rather than taking all the parts from my mex tele.

Are the All Parts bodies and necks good? I'm guessing the 'licensed by fender' says a lot.

EDIT: brain ticking over here ... I could buy the body say next year, finish it in nitro and leave it hanging in the garage/cupboard until I'm ready to build ... a few years worth of wood breathing and aging going on there!