Bass project

Addam · Post by **Addam** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 7:40 pm

On pickups mainly and aesthetics;
Here's where I'm at, it's essentially a Bronco-shaped body, with a Bronco-bass neck.

Firstly, that pickguard is a piece of paper.
It's the bottom half of a Bronco P/G and the top half old duosonic.
I think the curves on the top half need to be more curvy. OPINIONS PLEASE?

The drawn on pickup is centred where the 24th fret would be. I read somewhere that it's the ideal place for a pickup, harmonics and something and a bass is way more sensitive to pickup placement than a guitar.... ?

Pickups;
I have a few guitar pickups I could use;
2 lipsticks, 2 hotrails Would steal from another guitar), a Jazzmaster SD 1/4 pounder (i would use a no hole cover with that)
Or should I just grow a fucking pair and buy some actual bass pickups?
If so, I'm drawn to the PJ combo. Is that a good choice?
Or maybe just P-bass pickups?
And should I steer clear of cheap bar magnet pickups?

PS, I want it to sound like a mean-assed-growling MoFo of a bass, is that too much to ask from a shortscale?

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 7:49 pm

why don't you just use a bronco bass pickguard? that's essentially what you've drawn up there, just a bit more wonky.

i have one you can have for free, at least to use for a template.

damienblair17 · Post by **damienblair17** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 8:05 pm

I'd say go for an SD 1/4 single coil bass pickup. Pretty good sound from some demos I've heard.

Addam · Post by **Addam** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 8:25 pm

I'm not at all convinced that a Bronco guitar and Bronco bass are the same shape?

I have seen a loaded pickguard on ebay, which could help me out.

I have a big chunk of pickguard material, so thats effectively free.
But I might even do a rear-route for the controls and have no pickguard. I don't know?

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 8:51 pm

You don't need bass pickups. Bass and guitar pickups are the same thing. I use a red Lace Sensor on my Bronco Bass that sounds fantastic. Hot Rails apparently work great too.

I wouldn't put the pickup at the 24th fret. Bass pickups sound best in the middle pickup position, so a bit further back.

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 12:10 am

I've thought about a bronco bass project with two SD 1/4 lb single coil p bass pickups. One in the position you have there and one closer to the bridge/middle position, kinda like rickenbacker 4003 pickup positioning. I had a MIM jazz bass that I routed out to fit a p bass pickup in it and made it a PJ combo. I found that jazz pickups really only work well with other jazz pickups. Unless maybe you get a noiseless one.

toez10 · Post by **toez10** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 4:15 pm

Billy3000 wrote:I've thought about a bronco bass project with two SD 1/4 lb single coil p bass pickups. One in the position you have there and one closer to the bridge/middle position, kinda like rickenbacker 4003 pickup positioning. I had a MIM jazz bass that I routed out to fit a p bass pickup in it and made it a PJ combo. I found that jazz pickups really only work well with other jazz pickups. Unless maybe you get a noiseless one.

I've had similar experiences with the p/j combination. When I've got a pbass pickup, the jazz bass pickup remains pretty much untouched. I did have an incredibly hot jazz bass pickup in the bridge position for a while that got some use, but it still didn't kick as hard as the pbass.

Lace pickups are pretty solid in the bronco bass, though, and they don't require any wiring.

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 5:35 pm

toez10 wrote:
Billy3000 wrote:I've thought about a bronco bass project with two SD 1/4 lb single coil p bass pickups. One in the position you have there and one closer to the bridge/middle position, kinda like rickenbacker 4003 pickup positioning. I had a MIM jazz bass that I routed out to fit a p bass pickup in it and made it a PJ combo. I found that jazz pickups really only work well with other jazz pickups. Unless maybe you get a noiseless one.
I've had similar experiences with the p/j combination. When I've got a pbass pickup, the jazz bass pickup remains pretty much untouched. I did have an incredibly hot jazz bass pickup in the bridge position for a while that got some use, but it still didn't kick as hard as the pbass.

Lace pickups are pretty solid in the bronco bass, though, and they don't require any wiring.

Yea I had the SD 1/4 lb p bass and j bass pickup combo. They sounded just ok together, but I found myself preferring just the p pickup most of the time. That was my main bass in a band where the lead singer used to play bass as well and decided he wanted to focus on just singing. He used one of the non-active P bass specials with the PJ combo so I used my PJ modded bass to fill the same tonal space he did. I just kind of found that I didn't really care for the j pickup in there. It was noisy since it didn't have a reverse wound pickup it was being used with. Also it kinda just added in a taste of that jazz bass sound that wasn't quite enough, like if you want that sound, you need to just go all out jazz bass rather than a PJ. I never tried a humbucking jazz or noiseless jazz pickup though, and I imagine that might end up sounding better.

Addam · Post by **Addam** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:25 pm

I've gone the route of a rear route and a P-bass pickup...

The eagle eyed among you will have noticed the pickup is backwards, and the route isn't as good as I would have liked.
I had intended to mount the pickup conventionaly, but as it turns out I am a massive BELL-END!

I found out there are people who deliberately build basses like this, so I'm just gonna roll with it.

If I get bored with the bareness of whole rear-route thing I'll just get a load of stickers and cover the thing!

I've another project that I'm working on, it'll be aged olympic white when done.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:33 pm

AddamInsane wrote:The eagle eyed among you will have noticed the pickup is backwards

this is backwards.

rps-10 · Post by **rps-10** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:48 pm

Adam,

You can have the pickguard to go with that neck if you want it? I've given up on my bronco bass > guitar conversion project/dumb idea.

mordechaister · Post by **mordechaister** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 5:11 am

Looks great! Cant wait to hear what the precision pickup sounds like in the neck position like that.

Addam · Post by **Addam** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:43 pm

Getting there...

Just using drips of sanding sealer in tiny imperfections, then a wet-sanding, maybe another coat of primer and they should be ready for some colour.

moore65 · Post by **moore65** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:47 am

I had a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound (single coil version) that sounded good in my Bronco. I'd go for the split P-bass version in your Bronco build. Or that plus some single coil guitar pickup near the neck so you can get totally different tones.

Addam · Post by **Addam** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 11:05 pm

Addam · Post by **Addam** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:52 pm

The direction the Duo is going in;

JohnnyTheBoy · Post by **JohnnyTheBoy** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:56 am

Very Good captain!...like yer cavity routes on the bass, very slick!
What sort of sanding sealer your using?...and is it water based or spirit based?...
what do you recommend?...
That Duo will be sexy-time when youve finished! which neck are you using?...