John Page’s Performer was commissioned in 1985 to combat lost sales to the “super strats” that were flooding the market in the mid-’80s. In January of that year, CBS sold the company to Bill Schultz and nine other employees and distributors for $12.5 million. Page continued on with the Performer project and readied it for production once FMIC was in control of the company. However, within the agreement, the newly formed FMIC wouldn’t gain ownership or access to the currently standing Fullerton facilities so they were forced to continue importing lower-priced instruments and Fender moved ahead with production and the instrument was made in Fujigen, Japan.