200-dollar Squier Bronco is a winner.

[gip111]

Is it a 2020 model? Is it still built with the wide pickup housing under the pickguard?

It's a 2019 with the big cavity. The red Im not fond of, I think I saw someone here in another post take the gloss away from a red one and looked nicer...to me. For 200 bucks I feel Fender could have done just a bit more in the pick up section at least. Where I like it is in the comfort department and no neck dive. Fret work is excellent on this one, where most basses I have to do a bit of fret leveling, this one is on the money. The no fret board looks weird. As of now Im just trying to find the best strings for it and if I bond with it maybe even change the pickup.

 

[Shorty3]

It's a 2019 with the big cavity.

Then again I wonder why Fender/Squier do not put a 35HZ sized humbucker in the Bronco.
With the exception of the Flea active Jazz bass, Fender have no basses with humbuckers in their catalog (yes I know a split-coil is a humbucking pickup, I refer to "standard" humbuckers like the ones you see in many Ibanez or Gibson basses for example).
Fender had it once with the Pawn Shop Mustang, and Squier had it once with the Mikey Way Mustang.
I would love to see a Bronco with the same pickup that was on the Mikey Way Mustang.
As I posted before, I am sure they would sell many more Broncos (at a higher price as well) if it were equipped with a EMG 35 sized humbucker and a 4-saddle bridge. Possibly with a black pickguard. I mean, black and maple rules!

 

[SBassman]

Then again I wonder why Fender/Squier do not put a 35HZ sized humbucker in the Bronco.

Because the way lazy, long-in-business manufacturers think is - if they can shave 2 dollars off the build of materials cost, they will. Meanwhile, 99% of the people purchasing the bass will Gladly pay a few extra dollars to eliminate some obviously lame and unnecessary weaknesses. Like a bridge that is just plain - not a valid design for anyone who actually cares about intonation. [Hint: if you play any instrument, or sing, or make any music whatsoever, you should care about intonation.] And a pickup that has pole pieces that actually line up with the freaken strings.

Happy Friday everyone.

 

[Kubicki Fan]

Cakes,
When you say "real bridge", are you saying 4 saddle or what?

I didn't use my bridges on mine long, but I've heard that they can be intonated properly.
Is this not true?.......057912

It was impossible to intonate with the stock bridge. The string spacing was uneven as well. IMO defective bridge; known problem. My Bronce became a testbed for a bridge of new design (Ray Ross 4) because I didn`t want to wreck an expensive Warmoth body.

The more I messed with it (changed tuners to Gotoh Res-O-lite, PU, bridge) the better it got. In spite of the heavier tuners there is no neck dive. The neck came with Warwick`s IFT (invisible fret-end technology, JK) meaning that they had actually cut the tangs on the fret ends short and the finish filled in the gaps. Edges were rolled beautifully. The frets are level and fret ends are filed. Surprisingly, the neck has a bit of figuring (birds-eye maple) but the current poly kinda hides it. I am tempted to refinish it, vintage tint and change the head stock to a tele shape. 8.5 lbs with upgraded hardware. Acoustically, it sounds resonant and has a compressed tone.

Pics later.

 

[Kubicki Fan]

 

[ejaggers]

It was impossible to intonate with the stock bridge. The string spacing was uneven as well. IMO defective bridge; known problem. My Bronce became a testbed for a bridge of new design (Ray Ross 4) because I didn`t want to wreck an expensive Warmoth body.

The more I messed with it (changed tuners to Gotoh Res-O-lite, PU, bridge) the better it got. In spite of the heavier tuners there is no neck dive. The neck came with Warwick`s IFT (invisible fret-end technology, JK) meaning that they had actually cut the tangs on the fret ends short and the finish filled in the gaps. Edges were rolled beautifully. The frets are level and fret ends are filed. Surprisingly, the neck has a bit of figuring (birds-eye maple) but the current poly kinda hides it. I am tempted to refinish it, vintage tint and change the head stock to a tele shape. 8.5 lbs with upgraded hardware. Acoustically, it sounds resonant and has a compressed tone.

Pics later.

I'm confused, did you put a Warwick neck on a Bronco, or are you saying
a stock Bronco neck has invisible fret-end technology and birds-eye maple???

057912

 

[Rabidhamster]

I'm confused, did you put a Warwick neck on a Bronco, or are you saying
a stock Bronco neck has invisible fret-end technology and birds-eye maple???

057912

He was making a joke, because the fret ends arent sharp and on his specific instrument he cannot see the edge of the tang at the side of the fretboard.
Warwick use a more time consuming process where they don’t cut the fret slots all the way across the board they mill small slits with wood at each side, then undercut the fret tang slightly to hide the fret tangs permanently.

 

[JimmyThunder]

It gives me much more joy to own/play a kick-butt cheapo than a high-quality expensive instrument, because I am an extremely thrifty person.

 

[Kubicki Fan]

I'm confused, did you put a Warwick neck on a Bronco, or are you saying
a stock Bronco neck has invisible fret-end technology and birds-eye maple???

057912

I was being facetious touting a Squier sporting Warwick bling, and yeah it definitely has birds-eye maple, go figure ;-)

I was told early on that the life of comedy is not for me unless I can deal with rejection and poverty, yea downright hostility, on occasion. I am not one for taking good advice.

 

[gip111]

So a few weeks ago I sold my second Bronco, one a 2018 and 2019. Couldn’t get the hang of the weak pickup, no matter what strings I used. Last week I ran into this...

2005 Bronco. At the price being sold, couldn’t pass it up. All stock, even original strings but what a difference in sound! Punchy, growly and just outright louder and better than the previous two that were 15 years younger. Definitely not thinking of any upgrades for now, even the neck has a nice tan. I’m wondering if someone else has noticed differences as I have?

 

[Kubicki Fan]

So a few weeks ago I sold my second Bronco, one a 2018 and 2019. Couldn’t get the hang of the weak pickup, no matter what strings I used. Last week I ran into this...
View attachment 4024585
2005 Bronco. At the price being sold, couldn’t pass it up. All stock, even original strings but what a difference in sound! Punchy, growly and just outright louder and better than the previous two that were 15 years younger. Definitely not thinking of any upgrades for now, even the neck has a nice tan. I’m wondering if someone else has noticed differences as I have?

Just conjecturing:
Maybe it got over-wound by accident, maybe the pickup is different (more like the MM Vista), maybe they were all better back then. You could shed more light if you took a picture of the pickup without the cover from different angles.
Looks great BTW.

 

[gip111]

I should have taken a picture of it while I was resoldering a loose wire in the tone pot. The bottom of the pickup looked no different than any of the others I had, the 6 poles with two magnets in between. With volume and tone pots open I get 5.81k ohms.

 

[Volker Kirstein]

So a few weeks ago I sold my second Bronco, one a 2018 and 2019. Couldn’t get the hang of the weak pickup, no matter what strings I used. Last week I ran into this...
View attachment 4024585...

There's an easy fix for that. Good quality dual rail humbuckers for Strats are dirt cheap, sound wonderful on Broncos, and fit right in with no issues. (One of these would look killer on a red one, too.)

 

[DavidEdenAria]

So a few weeks ago I sold my second Bronco, one a 2018 and 2019. Couldn’t get the hang of the weak pickup, no matter what strings I used. Last week I ran into this...
View attachment 4024585
2005 Bronco. At the price being sold, couldn’t pass it up. All stock, even original strings but what a difference in sound! Punchy, growly and just outright louder and better than the previous two that were 15 years younger. Definitely not thinking of any upgrades for now, even the neck has a nice tan. I’m wondering if someone else has noticed differences as I have?

Congrats, looks super cool! Well, for some reason, folks overlook differences in exactly the same example of any given guitar....ive had Musicmasters that were duds...several Strats too matter of fact.

A lot is in the wood....make certain the neck is pulling tight for one (i always drill the body neck holes a tiny bit, enough to pull the neck down super tight)...but a lot is in the wood and luthiers have swapped necks on Strats and teles for years and found that the tone tends to 'follow the neck'....i suspect differences in wood exist...always adjust pickup height as well (which i recently did on my 65 Epi Newport because the pickup is so powerful, i lowered the poles to get a cleaner tone, still punches like crazy).

A lot is in the wood folks.....its been this way for years even with very expensive 59 Bursts...some are dogs.

 

[Kubicki Fan]

I love this thread. Lately, I am so excited about this cheap little bass, and reading others` experiences.

It has taught me a lot about what makes a good instrument and what is fluff. The important things are neck, pickup(s), bridge, strings (and tort ;-). If these things are crafted well and assembled to close tolerances one will have a winner.

I`d like to shake the hand of the artisan that shaped the neck on my Bronco.

 

[DavidEdenAria]

There's an easy fix for that. Good quality dual rail humbuckers for Strats are dirt cheap, sound wonderful on Broncos, and fit right in with no issues. (One of these would look killer on a red one, too.)
View attachment 4024723

Always worth a try!

I love this thread. Lately, I am so excited about this cheap little bass, and reading others` experiences.

It has taught me a lot about what makes a good instrument and what is fluff. The important things are neck, pickup(s), bridge, strings (and tort ;-). If these things are crafted well and assembled to close tolerances one will have a winner.

I`d like to shake the hand of the artisan that shaped the neck on my Bronco.

Well, they did in fact get the neck carve down on these Broncos!

I would like to know the differences in the type of wood saw method being used on the necks: flat sawn, quarter sawn etc...

Some necks just plain resonate better and fit specific bodies....try before you buy (which in the case of Broncos, i dont see many locally on the used market)...

The other thing is used Broncos are not cheap on the internet in general...i fell into mine at a thrift store.

 

[DavidEdenAria]

There's an easy fix for that. Good quality dual rail humbuckers for Strats are dirt cheap, sound wonderful on Broncos, and fit right in with no issues. (One of these would look killer on a red one, too.)
View attachment 4024723

I would always buy the hotter wind version...that way you can try both series and parallel wiring of the 2 coils...big difference here.

 

[matt-o-]

Definitely not thinking of any upgrades for now, even the neck has a nice tan. I’m wondering if someone else has noticed differences as I have?

If the pickup sounds good, it must be an accident. All stock pickups I had so far (from basses from 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007) only the 2007 Badtz.Maru had an acceptable pickup. The other ones were pretty awful receivers of RF... so you are lucky! Nice red Bronco.
Btw, I had a nice catch 2 months ago: a refinished (previous red) Bronco, now blue, with tinted neck. Looks and plays beautiful. I changed the pu to my favourite Lace Sensor Red. Lighter than my previous 2 Broncos: less than 3.3kg opposed to 3.6kg of the previous ones.

 

[matt-o-]

The other thing is used Broncos are not cheap on the internet in general...i fell into mine at a thrift store.

It's bizarre, very often the 2nd hand price is barely less than the price for a new bass from the big shops, sometimes even more.

 

[gip111]

If the pickup sounds good, it must be an accident. All stock pickups I had so far (from basses from 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007) only the 2007 Badtz.Maru had an acceptable pickup. The other ones were pretty awful receivers of RF... so you are lucky! Nice red Bronco.
Btw, I had a nice catch 2 months ago: a refinished (previous red) Bronco, now blue, with tinted neck. Looks and plays beautiful. I changed the pu to my favourite Lace Sensor Red. Lighter than my previous 2 Broncos: less than 3.3kg opposed to 3.6kg of the previous ones.

Nice paint! And my bass does pick up some RF though not enough to even notice but then again this is played home at lower levels. I’m sure it would probably still benefit from an upgrade, strings included but I’m in no rush to change it’s crunch and punch, heck, I don’t even want to clean it.