| "At the time of its introduction, the Stratocaster Elite was the top of the line, and production was stopped after only two years, when Fender left CBS. The solid Black Walnut Elite is the rarest of them all. It has a 12” radius ebony fret board with jumbo frets, which makes string bending easy. It also has active electronics and special alnico pickups with solid covers. The pickups mount directly onto the body of the guitar and there is a dummy coil under the pickguard for hum canceling. This guitar was apparently designed to provide a wide range of tonal possibilities, to compete with the popular EMG and humbucker-equipped guitars of the time. The active electronics provide a TBX control that was supposed to “adjust the damping of the pickup’s internal resonance for a new range of tones, and an MDX active midrange boost and top-end roll off, to provide tones ranging from classic Fender to that of a fat humbucker”. Other innovative ideas incorporated into the Elite were the Bi-flex truss rod, a four-bolt neck joint with tilt adjustment, and a pushbutton pickup switching arrangement that allows for many unique pickup combinations, in addition to being able to turn off all the pickups." | 
