Selling one great guitar to get two mediocre ones is not a great idea imo. I've had a couple Tele's and played them for years, they were good guitars, but ultimately decided they were not for me anymore. I was always playing rock on it and never got into chicken picking and tele licks. I would seriously look at getting a used one of the best quality you can afford. Stick with Fender if possible.

There you go! 

A 100.00 dollar rebate!!

http://www.fender.com/amstdrebate/

I think it would still be over a grand though!

The Tele is a very nice "no frills" guitar, IMHO.  And I've seen Jeff Beck do some amazing things with them.  I sure wish that I knew someone who actually owns one of those GuitarFetish knock-offs.  They look so delicious in those photos, and I'm very curious about how they play/sound.  I could come up with the money for one of those just by banning myself from snack machines for a period of time.  The guitar would be much healthier for me than all that junk food, and way more fun. 

You wouldn't happen to know if those Guitar Fetish teles are Indonesian, would you?  I've been trying to find someone who may have bought an electric guitar from that web site but haven't found anybody yet.

None of the photos on the web site appear be "Photoshopped" and I'm actually pretty good at detecting that kind of stuff.  A sharpening filter and adjustments to color saturation have apparently been applied, but that seems to be it.  And those Guitar Fetish guitars look absolutely beautiful in the web site photos.  But if the guitars are junk due to some structural integrity issue etc., then that's certainly a waste of talent and also of good wood.  It's really not that easy making one look all beautiful and symmetrical.  It's more than half the battle.  Because part of what makes a guitar look beautiful (perfect frets, symmetry, etc.) is also what makes it a good guitar.

Therefore I have to wonder that if a guitar factory accomplishes this much, then why wouldn't they also be capable of making the guitars physically and structurally sound as well?   Of course, I admit to being a bit naive about stuff like this, and I know that the world's full of things that are just eye candy.  But if I owned a guitar factory with all the tools, materials, and talented workers to build very beautiful guitars, I would feel like an absolute idiot to not also make them playable and structurally sound.  But that's just me.

1. Keep your Strat

2. Get a Fender Tele (not a knockoff)

3. Get a MIM from a shop so you can check it over carefully (see Mikey's post).  I love the MIM Fender Tele (Midnight Wine - Maple neck / fretboard) that I purchased.  I've made no alterations because none are needed.  It was on the wall, previously set up by the shop (not purchased at Guitar Center).

Tele's are underappreciated these days.  They are much more than just twang machines.  For instance, Pagey used one for the lead to "Stairway".

However, I suppose, they are not for metal - not that there is anything wrong with that !!!

Just a heads up but there are litterally hundreds of used Tele's to scour through in the used section at http://used.guitarcenter.com/usedgear/index.cfm Type in keyword Tele and see what I mean. You can even sort it out by price very handy.

Some one here already said it. G&L ASAT! Its better then a Fender. And it has the best single coils you will ever hear. There is the Tribute ASAT's as well. There over seas and you still get the USA pick ups. I have used ASAT's since the 90's. You cant beat the build quality. And the MFD will blow anything away. Each pole peice is adjustable. The output is as much as my active EMG's. Do yourself a favor. Just buy a G&L