Love my Bronco!

[brumshine]

I just bought a Squire Bronco off craigslist for 50 bucks and I love the thing. Here's a quick pro vs con for anyone considering picking one of these up.

PROs
-The neck just feels great, has some kind of veneer that makes it feel like it was just wiped down with that fast fret
-The short scale makes this thing super easy to play faster parts
-Tone knob is very responsive, you tweak it and it clearly makes a difference in tone, I prefer it at 50%
-Durable- neck feels very sturdy not like some other squires I've noodled on in guitar center
-WEIGHT, big PRO, this thing is ridiculously comfortable, I bet it weighs less than a strat.
-String spacing feels just right to me, love it
-String tension feels less compared to my other bases, makes it easier to fret notes
-straight into my acoustic b200, it sounds a little like a P with less balls, not terrible IMO
-Through my EDEN WTDI the sound is comparable to much more costly basses I own. the eden "enhance knob" kinda makes them all sound the same to my ears.

CONs
-It looks like it was designed by fisher price...
-The strat pickup is really noisy (I'm considering putting in a mexi tele lipstick pickup I have laying around)
-Big ol' crack in the finish where it was dropped on cement
-Not sure if it's the strings or the tuners but I have to tune this thing after every song.
-PITA to intonate correctly with the bridge as is.
-string tension makes it easy to bend notes and causes pitch problems.

I'm curious what you fellow TB'ers think about your broncos!

Thanks,
BRUMSHINE

[3234718]

Originally Posted by brumshine

-It looks like it was designed by fisher price...

That's what's always kept me from picking one up. That and any one I've ever seen in a store was red.

[foq1978]

Originally Posted by brumshine

-It looks like it was designed by fisher price...

That's actually a 'pro' for me...

[notverygood]

I like mine. I changed the pickguard to a black one with a white outline and put a white SD hot rail in it. Looks a lot better and sounds better, too. Only thing I don't like about mine is the frets are huge. If you play any other bass first then switch to the bronco, it feels like you are playing over railroad tracks.

[GBassNorth]

I like mine. Paid $75 used in mint condition and planned on hotrodding it but havent got around to it yet. Plays just fine stock but I'm sure would sound even better with a more agressive pickup. I was looking at a putting a GFS Lipstick single coil or possibly a GFS lipstick humbucker in it and maybe even installing an old Stingray preamp I have laying around just to see what it does.
I don't have any problem with mine staying in tune for entire sets and even after sitting for weeks unplayed. However my strings don't feel like low tension ones so that may be the difference. Intonation is not a problem on mine either.

[brumshine]

I destroyed the stock pick up by cracking the plasic casing when pulling it off. I installed my tele lipstcik pickup and the sound was horrible! I started looking at it and I found that the copper winding were broken on the side of the PU. I couldn't go back to the stock one so I grabbed the spare tele bridge PU and put that in. I had to drill some holes in the pick gaurd and bore out the holes on the PU but I got it in there. Now I'm pretty surprised with the sound of the pickup. The only complaint I have is that the poles are exposed so If I pick the E to hard it hits the magnets and makes a god awful clicky noise. I may try to come up with a little cover or something or just lower the PU a few turns.

[brumshine]

I got the soldering iron out again last night and did an A/B comparison between my mexi tele PU and the stock PU. The stock one blew my replacement out of the water. For anyone considering putting in a Tele bridge pickup, don't do it!

[Din Of Win]

Love my Squier Bronco!!

I swapped in a DiMarzio HotRails, and some new vol/tone knobs... and this bass is amazing!! I also, for grins and giggles, drew a black line around the outside of the pickguard to make it seem more like a W/B/W guard than the cheapy solid white.

Anywho, here's my bronco with it's brother-from-another-mother P:



Of your 'con' list; the ONLY one that's ever really been an issue for me is the Intonation thing. I've played this bass for a few years now, and i finally have it reasonably tuned. I have, honestly, liked the bridge enough not to swap it for a 4-saddle version.

[brumshine]

I love my bronco even more with the new paint and the GFS rail pickup.