ilovefuzz.com

- two humbuckers
- medium sized neck, in the .83" - .87" (~ 21-22mm) range at 1st fret.
- 25 1/2" scale
- Definitely under $500. The cheaper the better; as cheap as possible.

The neck depth is crucial and what I'm having the hardest time finding alongside the other specs, mostly because that info is rarely provided. I'd just get a Reverend Jetstream HB, but they rarely come up used, and I definitely can't afford new. And even when they do, it's usually at a little past my budget, so I'm looking for alternatives. I'm willing to look at oddballs, out of production guitars, anything really.

Modern Player JM?
HH Mexican Standard Strat?
Squier John5 Tele?

I think you might have to chop n' change to get the neck you want. I think the MIM 50s/60s Teles have a necks around those specs, you could get one of those and put HBs in it?

yup
if you or a friend are handy with setups do a loaded body + custom neck off ebay / reverb. i put a super thick dc kunkle baritone neck on a tele modern player and i haven't picked up my other guitars in weeks. it's exactly what i wanted and i think it cost me like 350 all together, plus the case of beer for my friend to get it setup just right. otherwise fender / squier have made so many mutant variants of their axes the last decade there must be something that would work for ya.

Ah that's what I was afraid of. Well not afraid, I do like partsguitars and I can do my own setups & soldering. Maybe I just need to get a custom neck and slap it on a slab like you say. I have a Squier Cabronita I'd like to put a new neck on, maybe there's a Filtertron type with a rich midrange I can throw in there too, and forget about making a whole new guitar out of it.