Replacement body for a MIM?

[HagTributeBand]

I recently picked up a Fender-licensed ash/flamed top/sunburst replacement body for my MIM Tele. Supposedly it's manufactured to exact Fender specs, pre-drilled and routed but I'm wondering if there's any caveats to expect when I bolt this thing up. The MIM is a Standard, about 5 years old. Wondering if anyone has run into problems with a similar swap with a Warmouth or other aftermarket body (mine is not a Warmouth, just using as an example). I've never done a Tele swap so I'm hoping for a semi-painless task. I'm using all of the original MIM components. Any advice appreciated! I'm new here so if there's a thread that covers it already, my apologies.

[spicolli]

welcome
i'm sure someone that has swapped a mim with aftermarket will respond very soon here.

[boris bubbanov]

Welcome.

We might be able to give you a strong answer, but knowing where the body was made can make all the difference. Please share that info if you can.

I can certainly swap out a Tele body in a hour, if everything goes my way. The thing is, not every body is compatible with every bridge, every neck, every control plate, every pick guard and until the guitar is set up and played for a few hours, you don't know if the job is done. Maybe you gotta go back and fix something, or may be pieces don't get along or just don't sound good together.

I like USACG bodies and have had fantastic results with them. I invite you to check out many of the threads here if you like; these threads may prepare you or they may just scare you. If you have a good quality body, chances are real good you'll have a happy result.

[HagTributeBand]

The body is from this outfit:
http://www.mightymite.com/index.html

It was actually kind of an impulse thing. Hopefully it works out. If not....I can always bolt the old body back up.

[jwsamuel]

Mighty Mite might be a bit of a problem. The neck should fit fine, but when I have tried Mighty Mite bodies, they did not fit correctly when I tried to use and MIM bridge and pickguard.

Jim

[HagTributeBand]

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

Mighty Mite might be a bit of a problem. The neck should fit fine, but when I have tried Mighty Mite bodies, they did not fit correctly when I tried to use and MIM bridge and pickguard.

Jim

Thanks for the info. Was the neck nice and snug in the pocket? Did you have to fill and drill or did the neck screws line up? Ah, well. At least I'm frankensteining a cheap guitar to begin with.

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by HagTributeBand

Thanks for the info. Was the neck nice and snug in the pocket? Did you have to fill and drill or did the neck screws line up? Ah, well. At least I'm frankensteining a cheap guitar to begin with.

The neck was fine. The problem I had was that the MIM bridge would not line up with the drilled holes in the Mighty Mite body. Of course, if you have an undrilled body, that won't be a problem. The other problem was that the MIM pickguard was not an exact match and it was off center on the lower horn of the body.

Jim

[yegbert]

Originally Posted by HagTributeBand

The body is from this outfit:
http://www.mightymite.com/index.html

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

The neck was fine. The problem I had was that the MIM bridge would not line up with the drilled holes in the Mighty Mite body. Of course, if you have an undrilled body, that won't be a problem. The other problem was that the MIM pickguard was not an exact match and it was off center on the lower horn of the body.

Jim

But what dealers did each of you buy the bodies from?

I was looking at Tele bodies on ebay saw that the bodies from various dealers that were claimed to be Mighty Mite, appeared to have holes drilled differently from one dealer to the next.

[PJ]

I don't have any MexStandards, but you might want to check the string spacing. Measure the centerline of the end string hole, to the centerline of the far hole.. StewMac sells vintage bridgeplates for different string spacing. Also, the Fender website, in the specs for each model, gives you the string spacing. I also heard that some earlier Mighty Mite bodies used some type of mounting dimensions outside of any aftermarket supplier's specs, requiring only MightyMite hardware. I think they've since abondoned this approach.

[HagTributeBand]

Thanks guys, most appreciated. I bought the body from:
http://myworld.ebay.com/newmetalshopmusic/

They seem to have a pretty good reputation on Ebay and have been selling this stuff on Ebay for nearly 10 years, so hopefully they're OK. Here's the body I bought:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=160223714050

The only pre-drilled holes are the string-through and neck screws. If it turns out the body isn't right for the MIM components, I guess I have an excuse to build up another one.

[yegbert]

Compare these two bodies advertised as Mighty Mite from two ebay dealers that sell bodies like these regularly:

The first one (the quilt top in tobacco burst) has string through holes closer to the bridge pickup rout, and aside the control rout at approximately its middle. I'm guessing that hole placement is about right for an American Standard or current production CII Squier Standard bridge plate.

The second one (the flame top in 2TS) has string through holes farther from the bridge pickup rout, and aside the control rout at at point that's closer to the output jack than the middle of the control rout. I'm guessing that hole placement is for a vintage spec bridge plate, although it could be for the first generation ('98-'00) CII Squier Standard bridge (Mighty Mite 2112C) spec.

HagTributeBand, I see that while I've been typing this, you've responded and yours is from the second dealer I listed. I'd love to hear whether your stock MIM Std bridge plate matches up to the body string through holes.

[yegbert]

Here's a pic of the one you bought and the pic of what must be the box with some info. I'm guessing that 4.5 is the weight. Nice body!

[HagTributeBand]

Wow, you should change your name to Columbo. Nice investigative work! You're absolutely right. In the first pic, the string-through holes fall about dead center in relation to the control routing, while on the body I bought they're further from the pickup hole, a bit left of center of the control routing. In my case I lucked out because after eyeballing it my MIM body matches the hole-through on the second pic which matches the body I bought. But others may not be so lucky so your advice should be heeded for anyone looking to do the same kind of swap. Thanks again, I'll post the results after I bolt it all up.

[HagTributeBand]

Update: Completed Guitar

Received the body. Flawless workmanship. I was really surprised. Beautiful flame top, very nice, consistent finish all around. But I was more concerned with fit than finish.

The first sigh of relief was a perfectly snug pocket. The neck fit like it was matched to the body. Screw holes required nothing, perfect fit.

The string ferrule holes required some work to (carefully) hone out the finish build up so the inserts would fit.

The picguard "almost" fit. I used a dremmel to take a smidge from the half-moon cut-out so that it would fit flush on the body around the control plate. It was slightly off. Nothing drastic, and not even noticeable once it was all together.

Bridge fit fine. Since there were no holes in the body for bridge or picguard, it was quite easy. The string thru holes were about an 8th of an inch lower than the stock MIM body, but there was plenty of adjusment so it intonated fine.

The end result is a pretty nice looking Tele. Plays great as well. In fact, I think the neck fits this body fit better than the original MIM. I would say that I'm lucky though. My guess is that it's a crapshoot with aftermarket bodies. But as far as craftsmanship, I have to give kudos to Mighty Might. For $150 I transformed an average looking Tele into a spectacular looking Tele.

[straightface]

What, no pics?

[HagTributeBand]