I think my Bronco is around 7 1/2 lbs...it sounded decent with the stock pickup just noisy and lacked a bit of lower mids you get in P basses...i could use an even lighter Bronco but i dont see bargains in the used market much...im guessing 6 1/2 lbs is as light as these get and thats likely rare...the necks are great, i wound up Tru Oil the neck (it was scarred up anyway), filed fret ends, complete setup and dress, plays and stays in tune good, intonation is very close.....wish i had a different PG but not sure what.
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200-dollar Squier Bronco is a winner.
- Thread starter Fairmont
- Start date
I love those things.
They need the frets leveled, dressed, and polished, better strings, and the nut slots to be nicely cut. Better tuners help. Everything else is fine IME/IMO, including the pickup.
It's a shame they're $200 now. They were $150 for many years. I got mine in like new condition for $100 locally.
Working on another at the moment. Bought the body on E-Bay, and will be putting a spare Mustang PJ neck on it.
Also, I have the CME pink one on order – supposedly coming in December. I bit the "bullet" and paid full retail for that one. I have a few plans for it, though. I happen to have a 1/4 Pound slab Precision pickup sitting here...and the guard needs to be black IMO.
They need the frets leveled, dressed, and polished, better strings, and the nut slots to be nicely cut. Better tuners help. Everything else is fine IME/IMO, including the pickup.
It's a shame they're $200 now. They were $150 for many years. I got mine in like new condition for $100 locally.
Working on another at the moment. Bought the body on E-Bay, and will be putting a spare Mustang PJ neck on it.
Also, I have the CME pink one on order – supposedly coming in December. I bit the "bullet" and paid full retail for that one. I have a few plans for it, though. I happen to have a 1/4 Pound slab Precision pickup sitting here...and the guard needs to be black IMO.
Is the general consensus that these newer 2019 and 2020 Broncos need work? Or are they decent-to-good out of the box? That pink one coming out looks beautiful. I have a penchant for "odd" gear so if these become popular, my jimmies might get rustled and I might not like these as much. It seems as though the 2019 and 2020 Bronco Bass has a cult following here (I am new).
even my old one didn't need all of that. the nut slots were fine, the frets were levelled. the new one doesn't need almost any work.
it's a bit of a crap shoot. i've tried some at GC stores that were okay, but might have needed a little something, some aren't intonated too well and the saddle isn't conducive to intonating well. the one i own now didn't need any work out of the box.
I think we must have very different standards for that sort of work, then. I've never picked up a Squier or MIM Fender that didn't need some degree of fret work...and I've literally picked up thousands of them. (Mind you, many higher ends instruments aren't much better...but I've never seen a Squier level instrument with anything I would call "acceptable" fretwork.)
The level isn't usually the issue. Its the sharp bevels and the poor polish. But if you're rounding the edges and polishing the frets, you might as well level and crown too, just to make everything dead perfect.
As for nut slots, they are very rarely cut to the ideal depth, and they don't fit larger strings (which the bass really needs to sound and feel like a "real" bass).
Well, I did say "to any great degree." Yes, there are differences, but I still say the differences in which tones are emphasized by different pickups pale compared to the differences between the tones that are reproduced by different speakers.
Anyway, to the OP's point, yes you can use guitar pickups on a bass.
i think we do have different standards, and that's okay.
if nothing on a bass keeps me from enjoying playing it - if it feels good, the frets aren't too high or low, the neck is comfortable and nothing gets in my way or feels bad, i'm pretty happy. i use extra light strings on everything - it started from arthritis and tendonitis, and every bass gets new strings fairly soon. some might need an action adjustment. but my frets mostly check out using a fret rocker, and i'm not a perfectionist although i don't want to play a bass that gets in the way of me playing.
Right, that I know. It actually wasn't entirely because of Billy that I wanted to do this as copying his tone wouldn't do well for me with the music I do. I was more interested from this video where the guy is playing an attitude but with a cleaner sound. You can hear the low end rise up and get beefier when he turns on the woofer pickup and get thinner again when he turns it down. It was his suggestion to go with the guitar pickup as he knows people who have done the same and had great results. I was looking at Dimarzio rail style humbuckers but given what I've seen in this thread a single coil sized hot rails style pickup (Dimarzio or Seymour Duncan) may be my best bet. Especially when considering size as there is very, very little room to do so on my bass.
Japan Squiers are excellent....classic vibe and vintage vibe as well (maybe not as nice as Japan) but yea many other Squiers need attention from what ive handled.
I agree its sharp bevels and poor polish mostly but i expect that with most...nut slots as well.
Otoh, the neck on every Bronco bass has been so good overall for my hands, i have no issue at the price whatsoever!
You're on the right track given you have limited space...a Duncan Hot Rails bridge model wired in series would be my choice which i did in a 72 Musicmaster bass i gifted except i preferred the parallel cleaner more focused tone since each coil is like 6k with the powerful ceramic magnet....it is awesome in that 72 MM....wouldnt mind trying a neck PU in a Bronco bass for kicks.
The only thing I really disliked were the tuners. They sort of held, but were very fussy to get there. It was an easy mod to ream both sides of the peg hole with a step bit, and finish with a regular bit. It's such an easy thing done that way you could do it blindfolded. The 3/8 ultralites I put on in their place were well worth the effort
My 2019 Bronco has great fretwork and no sharp edges, maybe I was just lucky.
I changed the tuners and the bridge and I noticed the original stock bridge had wider space between the A and the D string.
I remember reading somewhere that the wrongly spaced bridge was probably a faulty batch so this might concern many recent Broncos, but I wouldn't want to alarm anyone.
Everything else was fine even though I hugely modded it (see my post #39 in this thread).
i guess i got lucky with my second bronco. it stays in tune perfectly.
The more I hear about these, the more I want to put a few bucks aside and get the pretty pink one that's coming out soon. But would they be "less cool" if "everyone has them?" 
Sweet!
I usually buy used gear, but I had to have the shell pink Mustang PJ from CME also. Just HAD to have it!
Sweet!
I usually buy used gear, but I had to have the shell pink Mustang PJ from CME also. Just HAD to have it!
Thought for a second about that one. But I have a few Mustang PJs already, and I never make use of the J pickups. I think the Bronco is a more attractive bass, with its Musicmaster style pickup, Musicmaster style bridge, and no J bridge pickup cutting into the expanse of paint between the guard and bridge.
i like the shell pink, but i might prefer it with a rosewood board
Squier Affinity Bronco Bass Shell Pink (CME Exclusive) Pre-Order
or maybe a different pickguard... something to counteract all the white and pink.
Squier Affinity Bronco Bass Shell Pink (CME Exclusive) Pre-Order
or maybe a different pickguard... something to counteract all the white and pink.
I cant get a grasp of the actual color of the CME Bronco in shell pink...pic does not seem good but i prefer to see actual colors in person...or at least an array of photos.
No clue what PG i would use but i do like the Mustang chrome control mod for a Bronco PG...it breaks up the white PG...gonna do my black Bronco that way next!
