Hi,

I have Fender American Deluxe SSS Stratocaster from 2010, all stock. I just recently noticed that my bridge pickup seems to be broken.

When it is selected the tone knob doesn't work (it sounds like its always rolled down, cutting the heights), but the same tone knob works with middle pickup. Also when only the bridge pickup is selected, it sounds the same as when the bridge and middle pickups are selected.

Did anyone came across this problem? How was it fixed?

Welcome.

Most likely, one of the terminals on the bottom of your pickup selector switch is bottoming out in the control cavity. As the control cavity has a coating of shielding paint, said terminal is shorting to ground. Either gently bend the errant terminal up, away from the bottom of the cavity or put a couple of strips of electrical tape in the cavity, directly below the selector switch as insulation.

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You dig?

Or pickups selector have dirty or defective contacts ?

Loss of quality control is the main cause for which the majority of Fender guitars and basses came with all those problems!

Why? Because the California giant decided to cut costs to save money.

"When it is selected the tone knob doesn't work (it sounds like its always rolled down, cutting the heights), but the same tone knob works with middle pickup. Also when only the bridge pickup is selected, it sounds the same as when the bridge and middle pickups are selected."

I've always been under the impression the tone controls are usually just active on the front and middle pickup

That is true for "Vintage wiring" - that's the way Leo & company designed it back in the day and several models still are wired that way. However, the OP is talking about an American Deluxe, which would have "Modern wiring" where the lower tone control is wired to both the middle and bridge pickup. It was a common mod for those who wanted a tone conrol for the bridge pickup to change the wiring so Fender started doing it at the factory when the American Standards came out (although the middle and bridge were wired to a TBX control for the first 10 years or so of the model).

Ah! Right - modern verses vintage... Thx!