70s musicmaster bass pickups- wtf?

mewithoutus · Post by **mewithoutus** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 12:54 am

robroe wrote:it doesn't bother me mike

eat shit you cunting cunt

you sit down in front of your computer, put your hands to the keyboard, and say the most rediculous things ever. and for that you are my hero.

not because you gave mike a verbal cunt punt, but because of your choice of words.

Ninja Mike 808 · Post by **Ninja Mike 808** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 1:14 am

bloody swell geetar, mate.

aen · Post by **aen** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 1:26 am

Malik wrote:
robroe wrote:completely nackered
I swear knackered is English, do you actually say that word in America? I can't imagine that in the accent.

IVe picked up quite a few englishisms in thelast couple years. tahnks a lot English people.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:18 am

superfuzz wrote:I would think that would be a really bright bass. is this tr00?

i dunno about billy3000's but mine isn't bright at all. it sounds nice unplugged, but really muffled amplified (to my ears anyway). i'd have thought the fact that the pole pieces in no way line up with the strings would account for it.

i was planning to go and pick it up from ma & pa's today and get some better pics but it's not happening.

EddieN · Post by **EddieN** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:25 pm

stewart wrote:
superfuzz wrote:I would think that would be a really bright bass. is this tr00?
i dunno about billy3000's but mine isn't bright at all. it sounds nice unplugged, but really muffled amplified (to my ears anyway). i'd have thought the fact that the pole pieces in no way line up with the strings would account for it.

i was planning to go and pick it up from ma & pa's today and get some better pics but it's not happening.

Is the original wiring intact? There was usually a resistor as well a capacitor soldered to the tone pot. Some guys removed that resistor & claimed pleasing tonez. I don't think those SD pickups will fit without mods of some sort as they're slightly larger than a Mustang pickup (I'm pretty sure they won't fit under a robroe cover).

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 7:28 pm

finally got around to doing this... here's pics of the electronics etc. everything looks original to me, but i could conceivably be wrong... the resistor and capacitor certainly seem to be there. i can't believe that big fucking screw (well, i understand that was all the fool had lying about or whatever, but there's no need for a big effing bolt on it), i'm going to change that first of all and worry about changing the actual pickup later (i have better use for it on a project)...

► Show Spoiler

Rob DiStefano · Post by **Rob DiStefano** » Sun May 12, 2013 1:22 pm

resurrected thread ...

modding a bronco is relatively easy and the results are truly stellar - it's transformed into a real bass guitar. the mods include -

my own cavalier '51 p-bass pickup (sitting in the original but modified bronco pickguard), cts 250ka pots, switchcraft jack, p-bass bridge, wilkinson butterfly tuners, vintage bone nut, strat pot knobs, d'addario chromes short scale bass flatwounds .... and a dummy coil (under the pickguard) wired in series with the '51 pickup to kill the single coil humbuzz.

fwiw, i also make a modified strat BASS pup as a drop-in replacement for the dumb strat guitar pup found on musicmaster and bronco basses.

LizardKing · Post by **LizardKing** » Sun May 12, 2013 2:22 pm

Rob DiStefano wrote:resurrected thread ...

modding a bronco is relatively easy and the results are truly stellar - it's transformed into a real bass guitar. the mods include -

my own cavalier '51 p-bass pickup (sitting in the original but modified bronco pickguard), cts 250ka pots, switchcraft jack, p-bass bridge, wilkinson butterfly tuners, vintage bone nut, strat pot knobs, d'addario chromes short scale bass flatwounds .... and a dummy coil (under the pickguard) wired in series with the '51 pickup to kill the single coil humbuzz.

fwiw, i also make a modified strat BASS pup as a drop-in replacement for the dumb strat guitar pup found on musicmaster and bronco basses.

That's really DOPE!
No, really, I am starting to GAS for a short scale offset bass.
Nice mods.

Rob DiStefano · Post by **Rob DiStefano** » Sun May 12, 2013 2:31 pm

more views ...

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sun May 12, 2013 3:08 pm

man, i posted like such a dick five years ago.

George · Post by **George** » Sun May 12, 2013 3:13 pm

not as bad as me when i started

you carried yourself well i think

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Sun May 12, 2013 7:02 pm

i managed to call mike a cunting cunt 5 years ago and he just sat there and took it with no reply. lol.

now we need to obviously discuss why you sanded off the squier logo

Rob DiStefano · Post by **Rob DiStefano** » Sun May 12, 2013 7:24 pm

robroe wrote:... now we need to obviously discuss why you sanded off the squier logo

no discussion needed - it's no longer a squier bronco.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Sun May 12, 2013 7:45 pm

I think the biggest reason why Musicmaster Basses sound like shit is the fact that there's a cap that's always in the signal path, so it pretty much goes from mud to more mud.

Rob DiStefano · Post by **Rob DiStefano** » Sun May 12, 2013 8:04 pm

honeyiscool wrote:I think the biggest reason why Musicmaster Basses sound like shit is the fact that there's a cap that's always in the signal path, so it pretty much goes from mud to more mud.

no - the biggest reason they sound like crap is the strat GUITAR pickup installed in all stock 70's MMB's and 80's-to-present broncos. replace that strat pup with a real bass pickup and it becomes a viable real bass guitar. this will mean either modding the current pickguard or having a new one made. i build a drop-in strat bass pickup for those not wanting to do more than just solder.

if the tone pot is of decent full size build (cts, alpha, etc), it can easily be made into a no-load which when fully cranked clockwise will remove both the tone pot and cap out of the bass guitar circuit ... move the tone pot knob 1/8" counter-clockwise and the tone pot and cap are in the circuit, adding buckets of mud tone as required.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Mon May 13, 2013 12:02 am

Really, though, I use a Lace Sensor guitar pickup in my Bronco, it works fine. I don't think the basic tonality of guitar pickups is somehow unsuitable for bass. That said, I prefer a hotter wind. The same Lace Sensor pickup that worked great in the Bronco, though, sounded like ass in the stock MM Bass circuit because of that cap issue. That's what I'm referring to. Look at the wiring diagram of a Musicmaster Bass, there is no possibility of any treble in that circuit.

(There's also the fact that I think MM Basses, since most of them are 70s Fenders, are overweight, clunky, and overrated.)

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Mon May 13, 2013 12:14 am

Rob DiStefano wrote:
robroe wrote:... now we need to obviously discuss why you sanded off the squier logo
no discussion needed - it's no longer a squier bronco.

do you shave the logos off your fender guitars when you replace the pickups in them too then?

mkt3000 · Post by **mkt3000** » Mon May 13, 2013 12:17 am

Rob DiStefano wrote:
robroe wrote:... now we need to obviously discuss why you sanded off the squier logo
no discussion needed - it's no longer a squier bronco.

No. It is. Just with upgrades and a sanded headstock.

Rob DiStefano · Post by **Rob DiStefano** » Mon May 13, 2013 12:29 am

some basic transducer design parameters ...

for any given pickup bobbin, build and materials, less coil wire turns (as opposed to far more coil wire turns of the same gauge coil wire) means increased treble, lowered midrange and lowered volume output. if the coil wire turns are dramatically increased, so will the midrange increase, the volume will increase and the treble will decrease.

a pickup bobbin's footprint and height determines the maximum amount of coil wire it will hold. if the bobbin uses rod magnets, taller magnets will allow for more coil wire. the strat pickups used in the mmb and bronco are junker asian builds that use steel pole pieces and underslung cheap ceramic magnets. most, if not all, are wound with the ubiquitous strat type 42awg coil wire. most, if not all of these pickups are underwound. low turn counts for a given bobbin footprint means it will produce more treble and less midrange. this kinda single coil transducer is meant for cheap strat type guitars, not basses.

take the original fender '51 p-bass single coil pickup. it has a much larger footprint and is capable of holding far more of that 42awg coil wire, and thus produce lots more midrange and far less treble. it was designed for a bass guitar and low notes.

in essence, the strat single coil bobbin footprint is not a good design for a bass guitar. if much taller magnets are used along with 42awg coil wire, it WILL be/sound better for a bass guitar, but the '51 p-bass is a far better choice.

Rob DiStefano · Post by **Rob DiStefano** » Mon May 13, 2013 12:32 am

mkt3000 wrote:
Rob DiStefano wrote:
robroe wrote:... now we need to obviously discuss why you sanded off the squier logo
no discussion needed - it's no longer a squier bronco.
No. It is. Just with upgrades and a sanded headstock.

ah, yer one of those that must still believe the tone from an electric guitar is all about the wood and finish, eh?

here's a clue - electric guitar tone is all about the electronics. the rest of the guitar just holds those electronics and strings and frets together.

so, NO. what started out as a crappy toned "bass guitar" is now a true bass guitar, thanx essentially to better electronics ... and that, my friend, is NOT a bronco.

ymmv, as i'm sure it wiil, but you'd be incorrect.