The Body

     There is nothing very exciting about Fender bodies, especially the painted ones.  Fender historically used Ash and Alder bodies in the 50s.  Ash is nice when you are staining a guitar, and many 50s stained or sunburst Teles and Strats are Ash.  Ash has a much nicer grain compared to Alder and looks great under a clearcoat.  Ash is also a brighter sounding wood compared to Alder.  I read somewhere Alder is the "tastes like chicken" of guitar woods.  Alder is very generic sounding and possibly the most common guitar wood.  I own an Ash bass, and I really like the feel and sound of Ash, however, since I'm painting, and it is also used on the 1983 57RI, I need to get an Alder body.
      There are only a few options in Alder bodies and basic guitar bodies in general.  One option is a lightweight body, the other is a single piece or 2 piece Alder Body and of coarse pickup, control and tremolo cutouts.  From the research I did, Fender did not care whether the body was 1 or multi pieced.  Furthermore, since most of these guitars were painted, no one cares about a seem.  I also read single piece bodies tend to warp more, but I really doubt that.  The option for a light weight body I think is just a comfort thing, lowering the gross weight of the instrument, however I did read somewhere lighter bodies sound better.  Therefore i went looking for a:

Body
Alder
2 piece
Lightweight
1950 Vintage Contour

Routing
6 Screw Vintage Tremolo
3 Single Coil Strat body.
Front Side Control

I found one in stock at Warmoth Custom guitar parts.  Finding one in stock cuts down on lead time, and also shaves off a few bucks.

Warmoth is sending the body and I should receive it on the 14th.  During the wait I have had a lot to research on finishing the body.