I was doing a string change last night and decided to have a wee peek under the hood , when i lifed the pickguard i noticed that the mid / bridge tone control has 2 pots stacked , so i take it this is the tbx , i had never noticed the detent in the controls before (not that noticable) would a clean of the pots restore the detent or is it a new tbx control thats required ? had a play about with it , and i like how sharp sounding it can get , very handy for cutting through the mix methinks cheers
Alan

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The TBX has been removed from the American Series models when the Delta Tone system came into the scene in 1997.

It seems to me (and memory is pretty hazy going back to the early 1990s) some TBX-equipped Fenders had TBXs where that detent wasn't really that noticeable, while others had really stiff detents. You would pick up two guitars from the rack and one would have the stiff detent, the other would barely have a detent at all. Hopefully cleaning it would restore the detent; otherwise I guess you're looking at a new TBX or keep living with it the way it is.

Did all the 90's us std have tbx ?

I've got a lefty 95 and as far as I can hear it's got plain right handed tone pots which do nothing from 1 - 8 then roll off fast.

Very annoying if it's true. You'd think on a guitar that costs as much as an american std they would bother to put reverse taper pots in it.

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I'm just a startled bunny in the headlights of life. LJ Young

Did all the 90's us std have tbx ?

I've got a lefty 95 and as far as I can hear it's got plain right handed tone pots which do nothing from 1 - 8 then roll off fast.

Very annoying if it's true. You'd think on a guitar that costs as much as an american std they would bother to put reverse taper pots in it.

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I'm just a startled bunny in the headlights of life. LJ Young

Not all 1990s USA Series Strats had the TBX.

This feature has been discontinued in 1997 when Fender switched to the Delta Tone system with the hot bridge pickup and a No-Load tone control.

The 1990s were a transitional period during which significant changes were made to the whole line.

For example the silver transitional logo has been replaced by an early 1950s spaghetti decal in 1994.

In 1997 Fender switched from the TBX to the Delta Tone pickup system and two years later the swimming pool cavity was discontinued and replaced by the universal HSH rout.

I don't believe lefty American Standards ever had the TBX during that time period when the right-handed models used it - I don't think it was ever available as a left-handed pot so they just used a normal tone pot instead.

thanks for the info , john c , i'll give the pots a clean the next time i change the strings , and it's no big deal if it's not all that noticable , i'll just have to remember what strat i'm playing , thanks again, cheers
Alan

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You are correct. Otherwise, the TBX control was a standard feature starting with the Elite Strat until it was supplanted by the no-load tone control. Also worth noting is that the hot-rod American Standard models (Roadhouse, Lone Star, and Big Apple Strats) did not have the TBX control either.

Had to look up what a TBX is and found out it stands for "Treble Bass Expander."

Interesting article from Premier Guitar:

http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2010/Oct/The_Fender_TBX_Tone_Control_Part_1.aspx

My '88 has the TBX pot as well and when I bought the thing, I was told that Strats never had a tone knob for the center pick up and the TBX made up for it by splitting the 0-5 settings for the middle pick up and 6-10 for the bridge pick up. I read the article above, but I'm not savvy with the technical jargon, so I only sort of grasped the basic concept which did not mention the tonal splitting. By the way, I am convinced I hear tonal control as I've described. Any thoughts?

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No, that is not correct. The TBX is wired to both the middle and bridge pickups so it provides the same tone shaping action to each pickup.

Basically it's two tone pots attached to the same post; one is a "regular" 250k pot (or maybe it's a 500k pot, I forget) and the other is a 1 mg pot. At any rate from 1-5 you're getting the "regular" pot so "5" on a TBX is like "10" on a normal pot. From 6-10 on the TBX it switches over to the 1 mg pot which really cuts out the bass response, thereby "expanding" the treble.

Also whomever told you that the middle pickup didn't have a tone control was blowing smoke - vintage wiring on a Strat was master volume, tone for the neck pickup, and tone for the middle pickup. With vintage factory wiring it was always the bridge pickup that did not have a tone control.

Also that was originally "corrected" with the CBS-era 2-knob Standards and the Elite Strats from 1983/84; they both had master tone controls that worked for all 3 pickups. The second tone control on the Elites was an active mid-boost (12.5 db if I'm remembering correctly).

WEll, how about that. Thanks for the clarification. That helps and I appreciate the technical explanation on a level I understand!

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I'm the best guitarist in my bedroom.