Fender had offered cosmetic upgrades to their Stratocasters in the form of the Walnut Strat and Gold Strat (with black walnut body and gold-plated hardware, respectively) in 1981, but the Elite Stratocaster of 1983 introduced upgraded performance as well.

The poleless, white-covered pickups were part of an active electronics system, and the traditional pickup selector switch was replaced by three on-off pushbuttons. The tremolo bridge unit offered drop-in string loading (rather than through-the-back) along with a snap-on whammy bar. And the jack was moved out of the way of the player’s right hand, to the rim of the guitar.

In the end, even Walnut Elite and Gold Elite options couldn’t save the Elite Stratocaster, and when the employee group led by Bill Schultz bought Fender from CBS in early 1985, the Elite disappeared.