Hi Folks,
I now have both the Affinity Bronco and
the VM SS Jaguar .That gives me the
opportunity to compare them for myself.
I bought both used. Both in stock and
in mint condition. I bought the Bronco
with intensions of modding it. Here is a
before and after pic of the Bronco,
The stock tuners on the Bronco are some
of the cheapest and crummiest closed
tuners I have ever seen. Worse than the
old Chinese Affinity P bass tuners.
The ones on the Jag are nice open tuners.
They have a smooth movement and seem
to stay in tune OK.
The stock bridge on the Bronco is OK in
my opinion, but obviously low cost. It has
two shared saddle pieces that do not allow
quite the intonation of a 4 saddle bridge.
But it gets close enough for most peoples
needs.
The bridge on the Jag is OK. Its like
ones on most Squier basses, just fine.
The neck on the Bronco is chunky. It is
1 5/8 inch wide at the nut. (same as a
Precision neck). It is one solid piece of
maple. The fretboard is not a separate
piece. The frets seem a little bigger than
the Jag frets. It is a nice neck though.
The neck on the Jaguar is obviously
nicer. It is slim and narrow like a Jazz
bass neck. Personally, I like the rose-
wood fretboard better.
Both necks had sharp fret ends, but
the fit and finish of the Jag neck is
nicer than the Bronco.
The Bronco is heavier, at a little over
8 pounds. The Jag is about a pound
lighter.
The body and furnishings on the Jag
are far better than the Bronco.
The pickup on the Bronco is single pole
pup for a 6 string electric guitar. It is just
barely passable as a bass pup. It had a
really weak bass response.
The pickups on the Jag are nice. I have
no problem with them. They are in the
standard PJ configuration and perform
accordingly.
The wiring is well done on both of these
basses, but the Bronco had a noisy pup
even though the cavity was shielded???
After the modifications on the Bronco, it
sounds nice. It some ways, it sounds
better than the Jag, but over all the Jag
sounds better. The Jag sounds tighter,
if that makes sense.
The Jag plays better in my opinion. I
like the slim neck and it is just easier
and neater to play.
So, the Jag wins out by a land slide
when compared to the stock Bronco.
It will take a lot of money to make the
Bronco as nice as the Jag .. That
would make the modded Bronco more
expensive. I was not willing to dump
that much doe Into something I could
not recoup my cost on. Therefore, the
Jag tops even my modded Bronco.
Respectfully submitted,
Tabdog
