I'd like to replace the strat type pickup in the Bronco with a Semour Duncan single pick up or maybe(?) a MM style pup.

The stock pickup is near centrally located between bridge and neck.

Anyone replaced theirs? What worked for you? Thanks

Bump: Anyone have a Bronco they've replaced the pickup on?

I've heard of several people actually using an EMG tele/strat pickup - you get a clean, crystalish tone doing this - or get a pickup which has a "blade" style magnet, so you don't have to worry about lining up over the poles.

Check the Seymour Duncan site. There's a single coil vintage pickup that will fit.

Thanks. I'm still hoping to find someone here who's done this already and can give me an idea of what sounded good or can send a soundclip... Jim

I'm just about finished with mine, new pots, new jack and a brand new bridge possition Seymour Dunkan Hot Rails humbucker pick-up. Should be done today if all goes well.

That would be cool to up-grade a Bronco.
Have any pics?

She's done, bronco w/newguts, and I do mean GUTS! Strung with flats and played with a pick, it sounds more like a Ric then my Ric did, very punchy. parts pic.oldparts left, new parts right.

Here's the body pic.

The whole thing, pardon the cat.

And the new guts.

Very nicely done natasmi!

-robert

Thanks, I love making cheap stuff better than it should be.

natasmi,
Thanks! That's what I'm talking about! It appears that the new pup's screw holes matched up perfectly with the old pup's holes? Were you at all tempted to put anything bigger in? (Jazz style, soapbar, etc.?) It sounds like you're very happy with your pickup.

What do you get by putting in the new pots? Just more reliability? Better compatibility with the new pup?

Could you give me the Allparts parts numbers/specs.? What was the total price for the conversion? I like to make questionable stuff better than it deserves to be too-depending on cost vs. insanity :p

Thanks very much for the info and great pics!

Jim

Hi Jim, the stock bronco pick-up is a cheap Squire stratocaster pick-up. Piss poor by guitar standards, let alone for a bass. Any strat replacement pickup will drop right in, but I wanted on with rails so the oddly spaced strings won't have to go over any pole pieces. On a normal bass pick-up the pole pieces are too wide due to the narrower string spaceing on the bronco. I'm a stickler about thing like that. I researched strat replacement pickups to find witch one had the best bass response. The seymour duncan hotrails fit my needs to a tee, it had rails, hot output, and great bass response. It might be too hot , I had to find the right distance from the strings, too close to the strings and it started to clip my preamp, I got the bridge possition one, if I had to do it again I would go with the neck possition one, a little lower output. The pots one the bass were just cheap and old so at $4.50 a piece I'd might as well put in new american ones. same story for the jack, only $2.50 for USA switchcraft mono output jack, I put a new switchcraft jack in every bass I ever had, none finer. You have to reem the pot holes and the jack hole a little to get them in because the cheap ones on there are a little thinner walled. Once you hold the switchcraft jack next to the weak stock one you will immediatly see how wellmade the swichcraft jack is, stands up much better frequent plug ins and outs. I got the new knobs (speedknobs) cause I like them and had the new pots so what the hell right? only $5.00 for the pair. The best price I found for the hot rails was $69.00, way below the retail price. I'm diggin this little bass now, lots of fun to play, I got it for dirt cheap, first year squire made them so mine has the full size tuners. Jim, you good with a soldering iron? I wouldn't pay a shop to do any of this.

natasmi,
Thanks so much for the fantastic/detailed info!!!
I apologlize for not replying much sooner-I'm involved with a family elder care situation and my time is not my own right now!

Yes, I can solder myself so that won't be a problem.
I really appreciate this. I'm going to upgrade this little guy and use it for the next year or so while I talk with and choose a luthier to make me a higher end shorty.

Let me/us know how yours performs over time on gigs, etc.

Thanks again. Jim T.

I'll chime back in on this one also... Ya know Jim, you may have a diamond in the rough with the stock pickup... My '78 Musicmaster, (Essentially a Bronco), also has a Strat pickup stock and I was in the same boat as you looking to replace it... The stock volume and tone controls were definitely choking the life out of it. When I first got it a few years ago, it sounded much more subdued than I remeber my original '78 from back in the day ;)

I wired the pickup straight to the output jack and it made all the difference in the world. Suddenly the bass had a VOICE!!! The pickup rocked, with some serious midrange bark! About a year ago, I went from stright output to a RavenLabs P-Retrofit that I got from BassNW. Way authorative low-end oomph can be had with the tone knob at three and the volume half-way... Pulled it out at the blues jam last night and fell in love all over again!!

http://www.pcez.com/~isboy/2small_a.jpg

-robert

Hi rllefebv, I to am a big fan of wiring straight to the output jack, see pic attached, but beleive me the strat pickup that came in your musicmaster is WAY better than the squire strat pickup that comes in the bronco. At the last second I changed my mind and dropped in a fender no-load tone pot, even comes with a new capacitor!. This allows you to, when turned to 10, drop the tone pot out of the signal chain altogether, with impressive results.

Ha!! I used to have an old MIM J that I wired for an on/off switch! Your pic brings back some memories :)

I suggested the straight-thru wiring as a possible test to see if the PU was usable, but I don't doubt your comments on the Bronco PU... Just a little no-hassle litmus test...

As it is, I have a Lace Sensor Strat pickup, (blue sticker on the bottom), that you might wanna try Jim T. Even has the white casing! Kick me a PM if you want it Jim...

-robert

Thanks so much. I'm in the middle of working up an order for a custom small scale bass so I may wait on the Bronco project.
Do you think the lace would have nearly the bass response that the Hot Rails would? Go ahead and name a price and I'll give it some thought as I'll need to play the Bronco until my high end shortie gets done-10 months or so from now...

Thanks for all the info and help guys! :hyper:

Price?? Hmmm... I was thinking free... Shoot me your mailing address and I can get it sent off on Monday...

-robert

There are some nice people here, I feel good.

Bronco update, drilled one little hole to install thumbrest, I make thumbrests out of plastics and wood, why?... because there's no way I'll pay 5 bucks for such a easy item to produce. I have a pile of wood ones I made, stained dark mahogany, if you need one Jim T I'll mail you one as part of your project. Anyway I wanted to put my new favorite in a gig bag, no luck. It's an inch too long for a guitar gigbag, and too short for a bass gigbag. I had a hardshell case that none of my long scales fit into, Dano DC was too wide, cheap P-bass copy was an inch too long. So I cut a piece off foam too fit the bronco's butt, wrapped it in fake fur, could'nt find the right color so dark blue will have to do. Glued it in and here are the results, fits like a glove, I love this thing! I got the pickups at just the right height, It's all I have been playing, fun and functional.

I have the reissue MusicMaster and I find it very neck heavy. How is the Bronco? I notice the headstock is smaller and it looks like the tuners are smaller too.

seanm,
The Bronco is MUCH better balanced. The agathis body may be heavier than the alder/poplar? that the Mustangs and Musicmasters were made out of. There's a small amount of neck dive if you don't get your strap or sitting leg adjusted right, but you have quite a bit of flexibility ergonomically.

One of the reasons I never was interested in the Musicmaster was the immense neck dive. l imagine it's very tiring to play.

If the Bronco was made out of nice wood and had a much better pickup, it would be a fantastically fun axe to play IMHO.

natasmi, I'd love to have a thumbrest if you wouldn't mind sending one! Thanks. I almost always use a floating thumb technique so I wouldn't use it that much, but sometimes at a gig or jam it's nice to have one. PM me for a mailing address.

I'm going to put a better pickup in this sometime in the near future. I'm going ahead and ordering a six string short scale bass from a luthier and we're going to experiment together (by email!) I'm convinced judging by my detuned E to low B on this "hunka junk" that it could work for me. I'm a little more tolerant of a bit of floppy than most. Probably because I use light gauge strings anyway. I'd get a custom wound THICK 30" low B custom made.

I replaced the pickup with a dimarzio willpower and added a bridge pickup.

Check this thread, but most of the pictures have been wiped out.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72332