i always thought that my bronco had an older neck with a newer body or was completely old and refinished at some point in its life because every color bronco i have ever seen other than red has always had the small late 70's decal
aparently for one year 1976, they made both black and white before switching over to the small logo.
i went to jag-stang.com for the first time in like 2 years today on my work computer and found this photo. (that place is brutal)
me is happy. i finally know what year my bronco is!!!! the neck plate with the SN# was long gone when i bought it
EDIT: i just noticed the tuners on these have chrome buttons and mine are white plastic.
If you think of god as a pair of pants, a spiritualist thinks he needs pants, in fact he wants pants but none of the conventional types of pants seem to fit just right, so he makes his own pants and is happy that his knees are no longer cold.-fibus
I think Fender was gradually phasing in a lot of cosmetic changes in 1976. I don't think they did it very consistently. My 1976 P-bass has the serial number on the neck plate, and the headstock has the bigass logo under nitro. Just the headstock face has nitro (all yellowed), the rest of the neck is poly (not yellowed). My 1976 mustang has the small logo, and the headstock is all poly. The tuners are chrome button, but the knobs are the classic jaguar/mustang/jazz bass knobs, though this is around the era that Fender started using the black strat knobs. The serial number on the headstock decal starts with "76". Yet, I've seen mustangs that had white plastic tuner buttons, black strat knobs, and serial numbers starting with "S6". Other mustangs I've seen from this period have had various combinations of the aformentioned parts.
Fender was notorious for not wasting their old stock. I guess the workers just grabbed whatever was on top of the shelf that day for whatever guitar they were working on, until eventually the old parts were used up.
The only consistent feature that 1976 fenders have is that they all used ash as a body wood for that year. I've heard that this was supposedly done to celebrate the American bicentennial, but I have my doubts about that being the reason, because it makes no sense (unless George Washington's teeth were made of ash?). If there are any areas in the body routes or the neck pocket that show the characteristic wood grain pattern for ash, then you'll know it's a '76. Of course, to be sure, you could saw the body in half, but that wouldn't be very productive!
the face and top of my bronco headstock were sprayed nitro....you can tell where its all chippin off n shit on the top. the front is checked. the back of the neck is pure poly glass
astro wrote:The only consistent feature that 1976 fenders have is that they all used ash as a body wood for that year. I've heard that this was supposedly done to celebrate the American bicentennial, but I have my doubts about that being the reason, because it makes no sense (unless George Washington's teeth were made of ash?). If there are any areas in the body routes or the neck pocket that show the characteristic wood grain pattern for ash, then you'll know it's a '76. Of course, to be sure, you could saw the body in half, but that wouldn't be very productive!
hmm, baseball bats are made out of ash. that's pretty american I guess. I think it's a wood that's indigenous to america.
I went to a Martin Puryear (art) exhibit yesterday. He used ash, basswood, [mapple], sitka, and some other guitar woods, among several others. Turns out he used to make acoustic guitars at one point. Fabulous show.
astro wrote: My 1976 mustang has the small logo, and the headstock is all poly. The tuners are chrome button, but the knobs are the classic jaguar/mustang/jazz bass knobs, though this is around the era that Fender started using the black strat knobs. The serial number on the headstock decal starts with "76".
yours sounds very similar to mine, if not exactly the same.
astro wrote: My 1976 mustang has the small logo, and the headstock is all poly. The tuners are chrome button, but the knobs are the classic jaguar/mustang/jazz bass knobs, though this is around the era that Fender started using the black strat knobs. The serial number on the headstock decal starts with "76".
yours sounds very similar to mine, if not exactly the same.
Here's a pic of mine. It is identical to yours, except for the factory stock turd brown stain on the ash body. The other one is a '69 reissue CIJ.
i've never seen one with a stock finish like that before. it looks quite unusual! my main reason for hunting down a '76 was the neck; i much prefer maple fingerboards, rosewood feels too 'spongy' for my taste. i realise i'll probably be blaspheming wildly by saying that, but it's just my preference. and for some reason a lot of people dislike the late 70's 'stangs, you can pick them up quite cheaply. my one's a loud, punchy bastard and i'm convinced it'd give any 60's mustang a run for its money.
i saw on ebay very recently a japanese '77 reissue- exactly the same as the '70s ash bodied ones except it has the strat knobs. also the mustang logo had that kind of 'motion trail' that you used to get on the old '60s ones, i've never seen it on a 70's model (except possibly the competitions, but i'm no expert. it doesn't look period correct, put it that way.)
if i hadn't found the one i've got i'd possibly have been tempted by it.
stewart wrote:i've never seen one with a stock finish like that before. it looks quite unusual! my main reason for hunting down a '76 was the neck; i much prefer maple fingerboards, rosewood feels too 'spongy' for my taste. i realise i'll probably be blaspheming wildly by saying that, but it's just my preference. and for some reason a lot of people dislike the late 70's 'stangs, you can pick them up quite cheaply. my one's a loud, punchy bastard and i'm convinced it'd give any 60's mustang a run for its money.
i saw on ebay very recently a japanese '77 reissue- exactly the same as the '70s ash bodied ones except it has the strat knobs. also the mustang logo had that kind of 'motion trail' that you used to get on the old '60s ones, i've never seen it on a 70's model (except possibly the competitions, but i'm no expert. it doesn't look period correct, put it that way.)
if i hadn't found the one i've got i'd possibly have been tempted by it.
I think Fender started putting black strat knobs on mustangs in late '76 or early '77. I agree about the 70's pickups, mine are loud and punchy, excellent overall. My CIJ had such shit stock pickups that I immediately swapped them out for some Lace Sensors.
The 70's mustangs are quite the bargain. Last winter, I scored mine on ebay for $750, all stock and with only minimal cosmetic damage. The colour combo is cool, it contrasts nicely with all the solid colour mustangs out there.
astro wrote:
I think Fender started putting black strat knobs on mustangs in late '76 or early '77. I agree about the 70's pickups, mine are loud and punchy, excellent overall. My CIJ had such shit stock pickups that I immediately swapped them out for some Lace Sensors.
The 70's mustangs are quite the bargain. Last winter, I scored mine on ebay for $750, all stock and with only minimal cosmetic damage. The colour combo is cool, it contrasts nicely with all the solid colour mustangs out there.
$750 is ridiculously cheap! if you convert that to uk pounds it's less than what you'd pay here for a new jap reissue.
For whatever reason, some of those 70s bodies are wonderfully heavy. My 78 Bronco body is as heavy my entire 72 Musicmaster. I would love to have a maple neck.
stewart wrote:
$750 is ridiculously cheap! if you convert that to uk pounds it's less than what you'd pay here for a new jap reissue.
Amazingly, it was a Buy-It-Now price. I snapped it up as soon as I saw it. The chrome has a lot of rust, and there were a few small chips (on the back only), and was missing the trem bar (I got a replacement for $10), but everything was stock and fully functional. It was a total score!
I've noticed that most people with late 70's 'stangs on ebay usually have BIN prices in the $1400 range these days (and I never see them sell at that price), but the ones that are on true auctions with no reserves often sell for $750-$850. That's comparable to the price of a new '65 CIJ reissue, so there's still some good deals to be had.
DGNR8 wrote:For whatever reason, some of those 70s bodies are wonderfully heavy. My 78 Bronco body is as heavy my entire 72 Musicmaster. I would love to have a maple neck.
DGNR8 wrote:For whatever reason, some of those 70s bodies are wonderfully heavy. My 78 Bronco body is as heavy my entire 72 Musicmaster. I would love to have a maple neck.
My '76 weighs about twice as much as my CIJ!
i bought an amp from a guy who said he used to own a '79 mustang, he said he got rid of it because it was too heavy for him! the bassist in my band has a '78 strat and it weighs an absolute ton.
there's a lovely white '70s mustang with a maple neck on the rivington guitars website, think it's about US$1400. dealer price, clearly.
