NBD Short Scale Heaven

As a gift, my son bought me a Squier Bronco Bass. He found it used for $120. Brand new, the on line stores sell 'em for $149 free shipping.

Since short scale basses are now in vogue, no longer any stigma about playing one, this might be the best value SS bass to buy!

It weighs in at 6 lbs 13 oz. and is a 30 inch scale bass.

It is very well made. Full painted shielding in the cavity. Amazing. Really decent finish and plenty good enough hardware.

I love this bass!

Although I am a complete full scale bass junkie, this Squier is fun to play and takes about 30% less effort to play. Really for the effort of playing, there is everything right about this bass!

Modification.

The original pickup is a 5 k ohm ceramic magnet 6 pole Strat pickup. And, it sounds OK! Nothing wrong with it. The output is on the low side for sure but a decent sounding pickup as is.

After much research on Google about pickups for Musicmaster/Bronco Basses, it became evident that a noninvasive replacement is a dual blade, dual coil Strat pickup. But, a Seymour Duncan dual blade is around $90............for a $120 bass?

Then, I came across an old TalkBass thread where one of our people in Hawaii put a Dragonfire dual blade, humbucker Strat pickup into his Fender Musicmaster bass.

Dragonfire?

Ebay............$35.00. Dual blade, AlNiCo 5 bar magnet, Strat bridge, 12K ohm. Plus, I had a $3 off eBay coupon. Bought it for $32. I installed it today 6-21-19. Excellent sound! More power, deeper sound. Kind of like the classic P Bass sound but in a "small package".

Next mod, I'm waiting for a set of short scale D Addario Chrome Flats that I just bought on line. This should be the "icing on the cake". Yeah, I would have loved to put TI Flats on it but do I want to put $78 strings on a $120 bass?

In conclusion, if you're curious about having or playing a short scale bass, especially now since "everybody's doing it" (joking) a $149 Squier Bronco is an excellent choice.

Thanks my son for this very nice gift!

Check out TalkBass person jags and his photo. 16 down from the top page 1.

musicmaster bass pickup replacement

Here's my photos.