I have a left-handed 1989 American Standard and I love it. The tonal variation of the bridge pickup is incredible. I can dial a muffled bass tone all the way to a bright high-end tone. And for some strange reason the pot seems to have a notch or setting right in the middle and it's where I tend to find my happy-medium in terms of tone.

Being left-handed I haven't played many other Strats but the ones that I have played--a 1994 American Standard and a new 2012 American Standard--have virtually no change in tone on the bridge pickup!

Were the 1989 pickups special or is it common to have very little tone variation on the bridge pickup of an American Standard Strat?

Rob

The American Series Strats made between 1986 and 1996 featured a TBX tone circuit. TBX stands for Treble Bass Xpansion.

It's a dual concentric pot which cuts the lows and boosts the highs (or vice versa) from 5 to 10 though it acts like a normal tone control from 0 to 5.

The TBX was replaced with a Δ-Tone system which includes a hot bridge pickup and a "no-load" tone pot in 1997.

Ive an 87, with the TBX circuit assume its the same, i really like mine.