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Squier Bronco Fantasy Mod

BulbousMoses

BulbousMoses

Jun 26, 2008
1,412
142
Ottawa, Canada
#1
I think we can all agree that the Squier Bronco is one of the cheapest basses out there. But I got to thinking about how much of an improvement one could make to it if you wanted to. Let's not make price an object..let's say you just won the lottery and you don't care how much you spend on modding it. Could you greatly improve a stock Bronco or is it just too cheap and have too many limitations to make a marked improvement? The only rule is that you must keep the stock body and neck...anything else is fair game.
 
#3
Do a lil' search... there are some moded Broncos on here that FAR surpass anything i could come up with!


I'm modding a Bronco at the moment myself... Nothing too crazy:

-Refin the icky red color to a rad pale yellow.
-new knobs
-new tuners
-new 'hot rails' pickup
-new pots
-Custom waterslide


I'm very impressed with the initial quality, though. I really like the neck, especially!

Somewhere doen the line, i'd like to upgrade the bridge... maybe drill it to fit a Mustang string-through bridge.
 
#7
I bought one with "bad electronics" for $40 on Sunday for these very reasons. So far I replaced the pickup and put a sticker on it. :p

Din Of Win said:
Nope... it's a 6 pole stratocaster guitar pickup. But, some routing to fit a 51 style pup is a popular mod.
Click to expand...

Mine wouldn't require any routing. See pic below.

johnk_10 said:
it's not a strat pickup either. it's actually a 6 pole musicmaster/duo sonic guitar type pickup, very similar to what the original musicmaster bass had.
Click to expand...

Cool touch! Too bad mine was dead when I bought it!

IMG_0551.gif

IMG_0553.gif
 
#9
BulbousMoses said:
Does anyone (that you know of) make a 4 pole piece pickup that you could just drop in there?
Click to expand...

Two builders on this website jump to mind because I like their work and I know they do custom orders. SGD Lutherie and J Worrell Pickups. Both make clean-sounding neodymium pickups and I love 'em. I put a spare single coil John made in mine. The strings are rusted scrap so I haven't got a good feel for how it sounds yet though...
 
#11
There is a long, exhaustive thread about mods to Broncos.

Personally, I went the minimalist route and created a tone monster. First I tried an S-D Hot Rails strat pickup, then a '51 P pickup (not a good match because the Bronco string spacing is narrower), then I found true faith and dropped in a TV Jones pickup from a Gretsch 2202 Electromatic Jr. Jet! I had to open up the E-string side of the cavity about 1/2" for it to fit, but it was an easy mod.

WOWZA!

Add a chrome Mustang stripe made with $5 of auto striping tape, a stick-on V8 emblem from AutoZone, and there you are. The bridge intonates fine, the tuners work nicely, the bass balances beautifully and the neck is just about perfect.

All it takes is the right pickup.

PB070030.jpg
 
#12
Pilgrim said:
There is a long, exhaustive thread about mods to Broncos.

Personally, I went the minimalist route and created a tone monster. First I tried an S-D Hot Rails strat pickup, then a '51 P pickup (not a good match because the Bronco string spacing is narrower), then I found true faith and dropped in a TV Jones pickup from a Gretsch 2202 Electromatic Jr. Jet! I had to open up the E-string side of the cavity about 1/2" for it to fit, but it was an easy mod.

WOWZA!

Add a chrome Mustang stripe made with $5 of auto striping tape, a stick-on V8 emblem from AutoZone, and there you are. The bridge intonates fine, the tuners work nicely, the bass balances beautifully and the neck is just about perfect.

All it takes is the right pickup.

PB070030.jpg
Click to expand...

That looks KILLER.
 
#16
I've definitely seen some pretty creative things done to Squier Broncos. I've seen one guy even turn it into a really unique 6 string guitar! They definitely seem like really fun project guitars. I don't think I would buy one brand new with the intent of modding it, but if I found a good deal on a used one I would definitely consider making something cool of it.
 
#17
Nothing pricey. I have a Schaller bassbucker pickup that just belongs in that oversized rout. The cool thing is it has narrow polepiece spacing, and would work perfectly. They're really good pickups but wont work in just any bass. I guess if I did have the extra change, I'd buy a hand picked Bronco and have it finished Midnight Wine, neck tinted and a custom pickguard made, and put on the best tuners that would fit.. Would be a killer little short scale, yup. :D
 
#19
BulbousMoses said:
I think we can all agree that the Squier Bronco is one of the cheapest basses out there. But I got to thinking about how much of an improvement one could make to it if you wanted to. Let's not make price an object..let's say you just won the lottery and you don't care how much you spend on modding it. Could you greatly improve a stock Bronco or is it just too cheap and have too many limitations to make a marked improvement? The only rule is that you must keep the stock body and neck...anything else is fair game.
Click to expand...

If I had money to burn, two words jump to mind: Dark Star.

Yep, I'd have at least one Bronco with a fatty DS sitting in it.
 
#20
I picked up a red Bronco, pretty much mint, no dings or scratches, very clean for the ridiculous amount of £34. I had a gig the on the evening of the day i got it so i took it along to try it out for a few songs, the intonation was really suspect and has barely been used since. The main reason is the 2 saddle bridge, anyone who uses a Bronco and still has the original bridge obviously doesn't use it with a band or record with it... Anyhoo, the maple neck feels really good so I decided to mod the thing up and make something really cool that will give my mate's Mustang Bass a run for it's money! I have just received a Fender Musicmaster bridge and a mustang control plate taking the price to £55 so far. Just need a new electrics (pickup and pots n caps) and a custom tortoiseshell scratchplate and i should be good. the silver knobs are fine for the moment. No work has been done yet, as the body will need to be drilled for through stringing by someone who knows what they are doing! so I will try to post photos of the process!!! Pickup wise i'm torn between the duncan tele bass pickup at an angle or a hotrails.. the snob inside me is scoffing at the idea of a hotrails in a bass, but the duncan will nearly double the cost... hmmm... Wish me luck.
 

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