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I has Bronco!

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:00 pm
by astro
...Bass, that is.

Found it on Craigslist, paid $150 Canadian dollars (that's $120 US, I think?) for it. Not much cheaper than new, but it's dead mint and I haven't found any stores with it in stock.

Plays quite well, I was quite impressed. I prefer the vintage fingerboard radius of my Mustang bass, but it's no big deal. The pickup is nothing special, but not at all the utter shit that I was expecting it to be. It's actually usable, and can be made to sound fairly decent with some EQ tweaking. The large route in the body is big enough to handle a bigger pickup, which is good. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the routes actually had shielding paint in them... my RI Mustang bass has no shielding whatsoever. The two saddle bridge is solid, and it intonates well. The only truly crappy part is the tuners. They look cheap, they feel cheap, and they don't hold tune for very long. The paint job is flawless, too. My first red guitar, yay!

I bought this baby to mod into a backup for my mustang bass. Here's what I'm thinking: black musicmaster bass pickguard, single coil sized humbucker for fatness, and traditional clover-leaf tuning pegs. Does anybody know if there is such a thing as mini bass tuners with the traditional clover leaf buttons? I only see the mini tuners with the modern "Y" pegs, which I think are ugly. I could just stick traditional bass tuners, but I think they might be too heavy, the body on this thing is very lightweight and I don't want to have a neck diving problem.

Here's a pic:

Image

Image

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:10 pm
by Ty
Very nice.

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:16 pm
by Mo Law-ka
i want one.

can has old pickup is you change it out?

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:17 pm
by James
do an Musicman pickup.

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:23 pm
by astro
Mo Rocca wrote:i want one.

can has old pickup is you change it out?
Sure, I'll send it to you for the cost of postage (remind me once I've posted pics with the new pickup, otherwise I'll forget). It's just a generic cheapo Squier strat pickup, though...
James wrote:do an Musicman pickup.
Interesting idea... I think the route would have to be enlarged a bit but that would make it the most badass bronco bass.

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:52 pm
by kim
that looks cute

i agree clover tuning pegs would look nicer but i guess there's a reason there's small lightweight tuners on there.
do an p bass pickup mod ! in black, bauhaus bronco haha :wink:

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 10:56 pm
by laterallateral
Nice! I considered getting this myself but it kinda fell off the radar.

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:42 am
by nsv
What kind of body wood do those broncos have?

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:34 am
by astro
nsv wrote:What kind of body wood do those broncos have?
You're trying to get your post count to 50 to gain access to the classifieds, aren't you?

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:45 am
by Sublimedo
Mo Rocca wrote:i want one.

can has old pickup is you change it out?
in need of a crappy strat pup?

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:17 am
by Noirie.
I was gonna mod mine but had to sell it
1979 Strat next week!

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:03 am
by ultratwin
Mo Rocca wrote:i want one.

can has old pickup is you change it out?

Haha. Didn't someone here put a hot rail in a Bronco bass? I imagine it would sound fairly angry and non-vintage but could drive nice and hard for a weekend punk outfit. Of course, for the price of 1/2 a Squier Bronco one could take advantage of a larger factory route(maybe) and do the unusual:

DA TRONZ

Image

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:02 pm
by astro
ultratwin wrote:
Mo Rocca wrote:i want one.

can has old pickup is you change it out?

Haha. Didn't someone here put a hot rail in a Bronco bass? I imagine it would sound fairly angry and non-vintage but could drive nice and hard for a weekend punk outfit. Of course, for the price of 1/2 a Squier Bronco one could take advantage of a larger factory route(maybe) and do the unusual:

DA TRONZ
That would be pure awesome! Aren't these mounted to the pickguard? If so, then no routing of anything is required...

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:59 am
by ultratwin
I myself am curious how they sound in the first place. Hmmm.

'Trons come with flathead screws that go straight through the p'up and into the body, not unlike a P90. Unfortunately the screws can be a bit short, so one should prepared to find some decent replacements along with some spacer sponge to adjust the height, and hopefully the route(?) is deep enough.

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 2:08 am
by astro
The route in the Bronco is pretty huge, I suspect that the 'tron would fit, or would need minimal routing of the cavity. It's a bit more expensive that what I'm looking to spend, though...