New Squire sonic bronco bass upgrades

[Aiden1382]

In case anyone wants to know my Sonic Bronco’s Ceramic pickup has a 6.03K Ohm reading. The Meter was set to 20k Ohms.

 

[elderdawg]

What is the differences in the older Broncos beside the saddles? I see the 2 saddle Broncs selling used for about $40 less than the new ones.

 

[DAVEYC]

What is the differences in the older Broncos beside the saddles? I see the 2 saddle Broncs selling used for about $40 less than the new ones.

The new sonic series Bronco has a four saddle bridge, making intonation make accurate, improved tuners and different colour options to the older ones, which came in Black or Red, new ones you can still have Black but now with a laurel fingerboard or Tahitian Coral, White and a Purple.
Mine was excellent straight out of the box, no sharp fret edges or body blemishes etc, some minor adjustments to string height and it was good to go.
Opinions will differ , I've owned both and my personal preference is the newer one feels nicer in the hand and the quality is as good or even better than the old one, that said I have modded mine with spare parts from my MIM fender Mustang, not because the stock one is bad or really needs it but I am a habitual tinkerer

 

[DAVEYC]

My Bronco-Stang, half Bronco half Mustang.
Sonic bronco body, neck and bridge, Mustang pickguard, pickup and tuners, rewired with CTS pots and switchcraft jack, homemade chrome control cover, to cover the larger cavity of the bronco body.

 

[rutabaga bob]

Got some stuff sold off today, towards the purchase of one of these. Also looking at the replacement pickup and some strings. Hopefully a NBD to report soon!

Edit: will someone please slip me the total length of the bass? All I run across is the scale length. Want to check out what bag I have that would fit best. Thanks!

 

[WI Short Scaler]

My Bronco-Stang, half Bronco half Mustang.
Sonic bronco body, neck and bridge, Mustang pickguard, pickup and tuners, rewired with CTS pots and switchcraft jack, homemade chrome control cover, to cover the larger cavity of the bronco body.View attachment 5191466 View attachment 5191465

Well, I thought I was the only one with a "Broncostang" bass. Isn't there a saying about "great minds thinking alike?"

It is a parts bass my daughter painted. Squier Mustang body/bridge, Sentell pickups, Squier Bronco (original) neck with hipshot tuners, strung with D'addarrio chrome flats. The same daughter that painted it made the custom headstock sticker on her cricut.

 

[rutabaga bob]

Well, I thought I was the only one with a "Broncostang" bass. Isn't there a saying about "great minds thinking alike?"

It is a parts bass my daughter painted. Squier Mustang body/bridge, Sentell pickups, Squier Bronco (original) neck with hipshot tuners, strung with D'addarrio chrome flats. The same daughter that painted it made the custom headstock sticker on her cricut.

View attachment 5193217 View attachment 5193218

Love the design work she did on the body!

 

[WI Short Scaler]

Love the design work she did on the body!

Thanks, I do too, it was a graffiti idea and she added the paw prints for the two grandpups we had back then. It's another one of a kind from my kids.

 

[Bass-Babe]

What is the differences in the older Broncos beside the saddles? I see the 2 saddle Broncs selling used for about $40 less than the new ones.

4 saddle bridge and better tuners as others have mentioned but also it has an actual 1.5 nut , fender always had it at 1.5 (38.1mm) inch spec on their website for broncos except it has alway been 1.64inches or 41.9mm. Noticeable difference.

 

[Bass-Babe]

There’s an eBay pick guard seller who’s latest sale listing says the new Squier Sonic guard is a perfect match of the most recent Squier Affinity guards. That seller doesn’t seem to offer a split P pickup guard.

There’s another eBay seller who offers 3 very slightly different versions of Bronco guards with differing dimensions (for example screw hole locations vary slightly), so apparently there has been some variance in the Affinity Bronco guards over the years. That seller does offer a split P pickup guard option, you just have to figure out which “version” of the pick guard dimensions matches the new Sonic series. Maybe some Sonic series owner will do the measurements and post results here… I’ll have one in hand some time next week and will try to figure it out if no one else has by then.

The 2009 bronco's has slightly different hole spacing. The spacing has been consistent after that , my 2019 bronco has same spacing as current broncos and sonic ones according to the measurements I have seen.

 

[rutabaga bob]

The 2009 bronco's has slightly different hole spacing. The spacing has been consistent after that , my 2019 bronco has same spacing as current broncos and sonic ones according to the measurements I have seen.

What’s the string spacing at the bridge?

 

[Bass-Babe]

What’s the string spacing at the bridge?

I was referring to hole spacings on the pickguard as for some reason the 2009 broncos have different hole spacing than previous and future years. All the last gen broncos have same string spacing at bridge around 51ish mm.I used 4 17mm saddles when I machined my broncos bridges to4 saddles it lined up perfect with string holes.

 

[Bass-Babe]

My Bronco-Stang, half Bronco half Mustang.
Sonic bronco body, neck and bridge, Mustang pickguard, pickup and tuners, rewired with CTS pots and switchcraft jack, homemade chrome control cover, to cover the larger cavity of the bronco body.View attachment 5191466 View attachment 5191465

If you have the skills you could use your stang" pickguard as template and stretch it just a tad to accomodate existing screw holes etc but retain the overal style/shape of the stang guard with of course a control plate to match.

 

[LoveThatBass]

If you have the skills you could use your stang" pickguard as template and stretch it just a tad to accomodate existing screw holes etc but retain the overal style/shape of the stang guard with of course a control plate to match.

Very nice looking!

 

[Mc Arrons]

I was referring to hole spacings on the pickguard as for some reason the 2009 broncos have different hole spacing than previous and future years. All the last gen broncos have same string spacing at bridge around 51ish mm.I used 4 17mm saddles when I machined my broncos bridges to4 saddles it lined up perfect with string holes.

Thanks for the information.
According to your comments, both Bronco (previous ones) and Sonic Bronco bridges have a string spacing of 17mm, right?
Thanks.

 

[Mc Arrons]

By the way, here is a picture of my modified Bronco:

 

[Bass-Babe]

Thanks for the information.
According to your comments, both Bronco (previous ones) and Sonic Bronco bridges have a string spacing of 17mm, right?
Thanks.

Older broncos are 17mm. Sonic broncos are 18mm

 

[Mc Arrons]

Older broncos are 17mm. Sonic broncos are 18mm

Oh, thanks a lot!!

 

[MadJack]

Mine was modded with a moderately hot Roswell Single Coil '51 Precision pickup (Alnico 5, 9.0KΩ), a Musiclily bridge (before I decide to install the bridge cover), earlpilanz Custom Tortoise Pickguard, the bridge cover and thumb rest. I replaced the stock chrome knobs with a pair pulled off my Affinity Jazz. It already had some shielding paint in the pickup rout and control cavity with a ground wire. I applied a second coat of shielding paint and applied it up the the top of the rout. I installed a TUSQ-XL nut, polished the frets and slightly rolled the edges of the fretboard. I topped it off with a set of LaBella Flatwounds.

It plays great, stays in tune and the sound is much fatter and hotter than the stock Strat ceramic single coil.

 

[Bass-Babe]

Thanks for the information.
According to your comments, both Bronco (previous ones) and Sonic Bronco bridges have a string spacing of 17mm, right?
Thanks.

Sorry that is incorrect If I said that I mispoke. The sonic bronco have 18mm spacing , affinity broncos 17mm spacing. I machine my bronco bridges to take 4x17mm saddles that I found a source for last year.