Hey short scale lovers. I have a '75 Bronco someone messed up long ago and want to save it.
They refinished it, and did a half ass job of installing a humbucker. Didn't remove enough wood, and the pickup sits way too close to the strings.
So, I have a choice of shaving some more wood out of it to make room for a humbucker, or getting a new guard and putting a single coil back in it. Since the collector value is now gone, along with the knobs and original tuners, another option is to go ahead and mod the hell out of it. I was thinking of puting one of these in the neck spot, http://www.kleinpickups.com/p-226-firebird-pickup.aspx
..... and putting a decent humbucker in it. I think it would be fairly versatile if I did that. But I'm open to any suggestions.
The refinish is appropriate for the season I guess
the only thing i'd do is scrape some more wood out of that cavity and put a hum size p90 in it. somethin real mean like an overwound jazzmaster pickupz
Hahaha I kind of like the finish, it's so overboard that it comes across as naturally ironic.
If that were mine I would just slap a Phat Cat in there put it back together and rock out with it. If you want to take on a pretty big project, there's been equally ambitious Bronco restos on these boards that have come out awesome....this one at least wasn't made into some sort of pointy or teardrop shaped monstrosity.
taylornutt wrote:Is that an original Bronco Tremolo bar? If so, consider yourself lucky. Looks like a great project. Welcome.
Thanks,
I'm sure it is the original bar. I haven't removed it, but I have a question about the bridge anyway, so I'll take it off and shoot a pic. I'm going to take the bridge apart and shoot pics to see if you guys can tell me if all the pieces are there. I think they are, but I can't find a pic of the parts anywhere. I'll get a pic up later today, but when I had it apart before, it was two bolts, the adjustment bolt w/a barrel-like piece that has notches to line up on the plate, , and two non-flat washers that sit between the plate and the recessed piece. I never took the recesseed piece off, but I assume everything is under it that should be. Rocks up and down like it should. There may have been washers under the heads of the two bolts at one time. I'll take another look at the Bronco threads here and see.
Are the bars hard to find as a aftermarket replacement ? I found the pickguards, but no knobs.. The knobs are not a big priority though since it's clooector value is shot.
Seems the nod goes to using the same guard and taking some more wood out. Probaly best, since a new guard will cost near half what a good pickup cost.
Nick, I checked out the Phat Cat. It sounds pretty nice going by the PC bridge demo on the SD site. Clean clip sounded like I can live with it. Dirty sounded nice as well. A local shop may have one in stock come to think of it.
Well, it sure it Christmassy. Sloppy stripes would have made it a deal breaker for me, but he got that part right. You might consider a lower profile humbucker.
I wouldn't want to remove the bridge unless I had to, but it's not that hard once you do it a few times. The bent plate pivots on the two big nuts. It would sag except that the strings and spring are driving the other end up. The spring is controlled by the single screw in the middle. The trem just hooks onto the plate with a kind of locknut system on either side of the plate. Historically, most people have managed to ditch and lose the trem bar, even though it's a nice little design.
There's some kind of trick to it but I can't remember. You have to follow a sequence or start over. And you have to line up the spring with the screw and quickly join them or you lose track of where the threads are. Something like that. Anyone?
BacchusPaul wrote:That's amazing. I agree with everyone else that a humbucker sized P-90 would be awesome, also a clear pickguard, so as to let the the finish be seen.
