The Fender Custom Shop released its first production models, built by master luthiers John Page and Michael Stevens, in June of 1987.

This early (1988) custom shop model has an Inca silver finish with chrome hardware. Based upon Robert Cray's own 1961 hard-tail strat, the features of this model include a vintage style neck, bridge, and tuning machines. The pickups are custom-wound to Robert Cray's specifications: The neck and middle pickups have staggered poles; the bridge pickup has flush pole pieces. New frets and a bone nut were installed in November 1998 by Mark Erlewine.

Any collector interested in Stratocasters will need a copy of The Fender Stratocaster by Andre Duchossoir.

This book contains more technical details about the Stratocaster than any other reference available. It describes pickup windings, body routing, serial numbers, string guides, vibratos and many other features. There is no better guide to collecting and dating the vintage Strat.