Hey. Thinking about picking up a Squier Bronco on the cheap as my first mod project. I know that the size of the pickup rout is a bit larger than the Strat-sized single-coil that sits in it, and I was thinking of throwing a Rickenbacker humbucker in there, specifically the HB1 650 that's found in the 4004. Would this pickup fit without any modification? Has anyone installed one of these into a Bronco before?
The Bronco pickup is a Fender Musicmaster/Bronco/Mustang/Strat-sized guitar pickup. The rout is a bit bigger to allow adjustment and ease of assembly. The standard upgrade so you don't have to do any routing is a rails-type Strat-style humbucker. This will get you a good round tone, depending on the model. As for the Rickenbacker pickup, I have an HB-1 in my custom P-style bass. Will it fit as-is? No. You will need to rout out the body to make it fit. You will need a pickguard made if you want it to stay neat, as the adjustment screw holes on the pickguard are wider than the HB-1, which uses in-board screws. I modified a friend's Mini-Strat for Rick pickups (they are all the same physical size). I had to rout that body as well for the pickups to fit. He didn't want to get a new pickguard, and, well, it shows. However, if you are up to the task, and the Bronco has the narrow bridge (narrower than 2 1/4 inch "Fender Standard" on P's and J's), then yes, the HB-1 would look good and sound good.
I have a chance to snag up a black Bronco locally pretty cheap. I'm ready to mod it. What replacement pickup do you recommend? I already have the classic P bass tone covered by my other guitars if that helps. Cheers.
I like the Seymour Duncan rails pickups. You can go all the way from a thinner scoop tone with their Vintage Rails to a mid heavy tone with a bridge version of a Hot Rails. The two most common replacements are the bridge version of a Cool Rails for a clean tone or the neck version of a Hot Rails for a little bit of push to the tone. DiMarzio also has some rails humbuckers, but you have to be careful, because many of them are voiced for the Strat-style ping to the top end. If budget is an issue, GFS has three versions, of which the middle may be the better choice.
I put in a DiMarzio DP181 Fast Track 1 in mine and can't imagine wanting anything hotter. It's fat and clear in both series and parallel wiring. I currently have it wired in parallel and will likely keep it there.
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