From 83REDELITESTRAT 7/23/2002.

He got his 83 in 1984 has all the hang tags, owner's manual and catalogs
from this guitar as well as some magazine ads. No, he says they are not
for sale but when he gets access to a scanner, he will scan copies in for
my site. It is transparent wild cherry with a maple neck. It is also a
HARDTAIL - NO TREMOLO!!!!! No one believes him, but as of early 1984, he
says you could still buy hard tail Elites. The neck date is 5/31/83. He
assumes that probably makes it one of the earlier ones.

Yes, his volume pot squeaks, this seems to be fairly common, and it pretty
much did that from about 6 months after he purchased it.
 
At the time when he got his Elite, Fender was doing a promotion where if you
bought an Elite, you had your choice of a FREE Fender acoustic guitar or a
Fender Sidekick 10 amp. I already had an acoustic, but since this was my first
electric guitar, I took the amp. I believe it was shipped COD, so all I had to
pay was $12.00 postage. I still have the amp, and it is a quite good little
practice amp.
 
The guitar is stock, except for the following: just got the guitar back as
it needed a total refret. Phil Petillo did the work, and added an ivory nut.
This guitar just screams now. It had tons of tone before, but it sounds even
better now! I will never part with it.
 
I asked 83REDELITESTRAT to get a photo of it to Electron so look for it in
the Guitars of the FDP.
 
Just some added information, a lot of this info seems to be overlooked when
people talk about the elite models. At the time, I was keeping a close watch
on who in the music industry was using elites, especially the Elite Strats.
Keep a look out for an album called Airborn (I think) by Don Felder of the
Eagles. It came out in 1984/85 and is probably out of print by now, but you
might be able to find a copy.... Don uses an Elite Strat on the album, they
are featured on the album cover and also in the video (Sexy Girl). 
 
Fender was actually running ads on MTV at the time for the Elites and the
"hang tag" promotion for the free amp or acoustic guitar. This was back when
MTV actually played good music. 
 
There were two Elite Strats included in the Eric Clapton auction two years
ago. Both had replaced necks, and one had vintage style electronics, including
pickups.