Great comments, Jay! Only the silhouette looks like a Tele. Once you look at a side view and start inspecting the top contours, you realize that this is radically different not only from a Tele, but everything else, for that matter. The neck joint is not just different...it's inspired. It bolts on, yet the neck heel is much closer to a glued in or even neck through guitar (many of Chuck's other guitars are neck through).
The bridge, pickups and control plate also are traditional Tele, but the wiring features innovative use of components to yield better balanced tones than we're used to. With my added middle pickup, I challenge your comment that the Fusion has a larger tonal palette, and the wiring scheme makes all five positions surprisingly balanced and easy to EQ. My push-pull switch brings the total unique pickup combinations to seven.
Once again, I'll refer everyone to the videos on Chuck's site to check out how cool these guitars are.
http://www.cpthorntonguitars.com/multimedia/video/
While you're there, check out other photos of my guitar under Gallery/Latest Batch...its number 202.
John