I've never once read or heard anything about poplar being the traditional Fender tonewood, early Broadcasters,Esquires and Tele's were ash with a few factory freaks being made from pine, 50's Strats were ash or alder, alder usaully being used for painted models, I don't think Fender started using poplar until late 80's or early 90's, and that wasn't just the MIM's, some of the MIA's were poplar with ash veneer. As far as their being a poplar shortage in the 60's, I think this is about as likely as a sand shortage in the Sahara. There is nothing wrong with poplar as a tone wood, it probably falls in somewhere between alder and basswood, in weight and tone and just like in furnituremaking, it's not a face wood so it's no good for a clear finish. If someone ever dubbs Poplar as the "magic tonewood" and it gets the Tonewood Mojo, it probably won't be looked down on like it is now, their have probably been a bazillion guitars made from it in the past 20 years, alot of Squiers,Affinitys,MIM&MIA Fenders, Samicks and if we started scratching some paint off from some Epiphones it would be no surprise to find some there. If PRS or Gibson etc... started making some special edition guitar from poplar and big slab of curly maple and advertised the wonderful sonic qualities of Poplar, well opinons would probably change overnight, bottom line is , a guitar made from poplar that sounds good, is a guitar that sounds good, but like your girlfriend's ugly sister, ain't much to look at or asked to dance, BTW Polera, where did you come across this info?............