1983 Fender Telecaster Elite

Description

A 1st year Production Black & White Tuxedo 1983 Fender Telecaster Elite, Almost all original with the exception of an upgraded brand new Fender preamp circut ( The
Clapton TBX preamp
)
& one new 250K CTS volume pot .It’s does have a scrape on the front of the body, a cigarette burn on head-stock (an 80’s type thing), and a small chip near neck joint, & 1 small ding on the lower horn (See Pictures) Comes in the original Fender case.
Below from the web:
After CBS purchased Fender in 1965, dealers and customers began complaining about the declining quality of Fender instruments. As a result, in 1981 CBS hired new management—including Dan Smith as director of marketing. Smith came up with a five-year plan to improve sales with new products of better quality.
After introducing the Vintage Reissue line of guitars and basses, which recreated the classic designs of Fender’s glory years, Smith developed the Elite series. These instruments had state-of-the-art, technologically advanced features for modern playing styles. (Remember, we have to view “modern” in the context of the early ’80s).
The Elite series included a Stratocaster, a Telecaster, and a Precision bass. Each Elite had a walnut, a gold (this referred to the hardware), and a regular version. These instruments were available with maple or rosewood ’board necks, and came in a wide variety of standard and custom colors. The Elites were introduced in June of 1983 and were dropped by the end of 1984 when CBS put Fender Musical Instruments up for sale.
This month’s Elite Telecaster showcases all the radical (for the time) changes made to the traditional Tele. These include a heavy cast 6-saddle top-loading bridge, noise-cancelling pickups with alnico 2 magnets, active TBX and MDX tone controls capable of creating fat humbucking and cutting single-coil sounds (similar controls continue to be used on the current Eric Clapton Strats), knobs with a serrated rubber insert for easy gripping, and a Gibson-style, 3-way toggle switch. Elite Tele necks featured a Bi-flex truss rod, jumbo frets, and a 12″ radius fretboard.
This guitar also sports a classy bound top and an optional stick-on pickguard. The 1983 Fender catalog proudly boasts of the guitar’s many advances: “Elite Series instruments incorporate no fewer than 14 new patent-pending inventions by Fender. This alone lends substance to our belief that the rest of the industry will be years in catching up with Elite technology.”