Post your modded Squier Broncos!

[Albin]

Squier Bronco

• Albin
• Jul 30, 2015
• 1

Sonic blue nitrocellulose finish
GMF lipstick pick-up
Hipshot bridge and tuners
Jazzmaster knobs...

This is my Fender bronco. I spent like too much on it (300-400 dollars, bass included) but I learned a lot during the process. And it was great fun! I gig with it a a lot and it sounds great, never goes out of tune and is extremely light weight.

Sonic blue nitrocellulose finish, vintage amber matt laquer on neck
GMF lipstick pick-up (the hottest, neck one)
Hipshot bridge (.669) and tuners
Jazzmaster knobs
Fender P-bass pots and wiring kit, orange drop .047 capacitor
Semi-flat short-scale strings

Getting the original finish off by hand was horrible so I ended up leaving some of it. The re-finishing I did in and old garage without any primer, it looks rough but after sanding and som wetsanding it's smooth and it the color really "pops". If you look close it's nowhere near perfect but it's a wear and tear bass so I like it that way. For the wiring I really recommend getting a decent soldering iron. The only thing I could do myself was to widen the tuner pegholes, a local luthier did that for me as well as some smoothening of the frets (which previously left cuts on my hand) for 20 dollars.

 

[Pandastylebass]

 

[Splods]

@Albin

I highly disapprove of working on your bass without wearing shoes. Seems silly, but that how I ended up with burn scars on my feet.

Great project though, the blue nitro looks fantastic!

 

[Antisyzygy]

Just finished this guy :

I said I was going to put a Lace Dually in this, but I lied. I decided enough is enough, I've been holding off on buying that pickup because I never felt good about the higher price. I ended up deciding I should just opt for a cheaper pickup and get it done. The pickup is a bridge position GFS pro tube humbucker.

It has a DPDT series/split/parallel switch and then standard volume/tone. I got the harness out of a passive Carvin bass that I upgraded by putting a preamp in it. I had to wire the DPDT switch in which was easy enough using Seymour Duncan wiring charts.

I'm waiting on strings at the moment to test it out for real. However my multimeter and the screwdriver tap test mixed with listening says it's all good at least qualitatively.

I may actually sell this but I gotta give it a try first before I decide. I'm just waiting on the strings, as I mentioned. Long story short I'm cutting my bass collection down. I wanted to finish this project so I could make a decision on it.

I'll probably be upgrading the bridge to a threaded 4 saddle one as soon as I get paid next.

 

[Antisyzygy]

Just finished this guy :

View attachment 667066


It has a DPDT series/split/parallel switch and then standard volume/tone. I got the harness out of a passive Carvin bass that I upgraded by putting a preamp in it. I had to wire the DPDT switch in which was easy enough using Seymour Duncan wiring charts. The pickup is a bridge position GFS pro tube humbucker.

I'm waiting on strings at the moment to test it out for real. However my multimeter and the screwdriver tap test mixed with listening says it's all good at least qualitatively.

I may actually sell this but I gotta give it a try first before I decide. I'm just waiting on the strings, as I mentioned. Long story short I'm cutting my bass collection down. I wanted to finish this project so I could make a decision on it.

I'll probably be upgrading the bridge to a threaded 4 saddle one as soon as I get paid next.

Attached are some updated pics :

I figured some people would want to hear what a lipstick humbucker sounds like in a shortscale bass.

Attached is a sound clip that goes :

1. Single coil
2. Parallel
3. Series

It seems like single coil is the brightest (as expected). Parallel seems to retain most of the meat from the single coil sound but loses some presence. It's a bit warmer I guess.

Series seems to have a large low-end boost. Series slaps you in the face by comparison to the others thanks to the volume and low-end boost.

I can hear some string buzz in there. I'll be replacing the saddles on the stock bridge so I can properly intonate and set this guy up. Until I can order the parts I'm just leaving it alone. Further mods would be new tuners of some sort. I may add an ashtray to this, but I'm not sure yet.

 

[MasonMinor]

You sir, have just won TalkBass.

 

[tuBass]

I'm 6 foot 8. looks a little weird on me

 

[tuBass]

couple more pics

 

[FerruleCat]

Mustang pickup and guard. Hipshot Vintage .669 Bridge. Jazz knobs. Black screws.

 

[A-Step-Towards]

I actually bought mine like this with $101 tax included at guitar center used. Has a Badass 1 on it, full sized pots, very nice routing to accommodate a P pickup. The pickup has cloth wiring I think its a Duncan but not positive. Who ever custom made the guard did a excellent job. One of my favorite basses. Came without knobs, I am thinking of Jazz bass ones.

 

[Doner Designs]

I was going to get a bronco and hot rod it, but ended up trading for a used mustang before getting going on a bronco. Thought some of the folks on this thread might dig this one with a mustang cobra car theme. I sold it recently because short scale and lack of contours and neck removal to adjust the truss led me to want something different. It has the Nordstrand pickup with a 5% overwind and a 3 band Audere Pro Z preamp.

 

[ZenG]

You have to remove the neck on a Bronco to adjust the truss rod?

 

[tuBass]

Not on mine, right there on the headstock

 

[ZenG]

oh...ok... I was just wondering what Doner Designs meant in his post then......

 

[Doner Designs]

oh...ok... I was just wondering what Doner Designs meant in his post then......

Sorry to cause confusion. Mustang is that way, but not Bronco. Some think heel adjustment truss rods are better but when you can't get at it without taking the neck off it's a PITA.

 

[Kaden Daniels]

I can

I modified one several years ago. It had a Peavey T40 pickup wired single-series-parallel.

It was thunderous.

It's in parts now waiting for a rebuild.

I can Only Imagine with that in there

 

[Kaden Daniels]

couple more pics

Hey Can I ask what you used to age the neck

 

[tuBass]

Hey Can I ask what you used to age the neck

amber tinted nitro lacquer from reranch

 

[Kaden Daniels]

It looks

amber tinted nitro lacquer from reranch

looks great I have a VM Fretless I wanna do that too

 

[Antisyzygy]

I modded mine some more. I added a new bridge, and wiring harness. I'll add new tuners next, and am debating on adding an ashtray.

Controls are :

1. Series/Split/Parallel Switch
2. Master Volume w/ Treble Bleed
3. Varitone

Varitone Settings are :

1. Wide open
2. Treble Cut - 0.01 uF
3. Treble Cut - 0.022 uF
4. Treble Cut - 0.047 uF
5. Mid Scoop
6. Deep Scoop (Sounds like a mudbucker with a tiny hint of top end)

This setup actually works pretty nicely. The series/parallel/split switch gets some nice useable sounds. The varitone is pretty self explanatory.

Mid-scoop sounds too much like the wide-open setting sometimes, but I can kinda tell that it sweetens up the sound a little in single coil mode. It's hard to tell it does anything when in parallel mode. I may need to double check that I didn't accidentally pull something loose when I soldered the pickup wires to the harness. I don't think that would be probable, but who knows.

The deep scoop setting I REALLY like. It's like a mudbucker but you get some presence. The guy who made this harness is amazing. No affiliation here, but if you PM me I can give you a link to his stuff.

One interesting thing I noticed is that the treble bleed volume actually works kinda like a bass cut knob when this is in series mode. Real cool.