Bronco bass

Cthomas

New member
I'm wanting to replace the stock pickup in my Squier bronco bass. It has one strat style single coil in it. I was thinking a hot rails but not sure which type. Bridge, middle or neck. At first I'm thinking middle( because I love the p bass sound)
 
Re: Bronco bass

the neck and middle models are the same. personally i might use a cool rails neck model. the bronco bass is short scale so id want the little extra clarity of a cool rails vs hot rails. neither will sound like a pbass but i bet it will sound cool
 
Re: Bronco bass

I realize that Strat pickups are direct drop-ins, but installing an actual P-Bass pickup is not a major operation. It'll get you closest to what you want.

I love those basses. Great bang for the buck. I have high-end Fenders and vintage Fenders, and I sought out and gigged the Bronco indiscriminately in a rotation with them. I only sold mine because it was time for a purge, and it was a bit redundant with my two other short-scale Fender basses. I thought the weakest points were the fretwork and the stock strings. I actually thought the pickup held up fine, but to each his/her own.
 
Re: Bronco bass

I first had a Lawrence 500XL in mine and then a Lace red and a generic Chinese hotrail. Nearly anything is an improvement on the weak stock pickup. The biggest improvement is a good bridge where you can adjust the height and intonation properly.
 
Re: Bronco bass

Decades ago I had a Musicmaster bass - essentially the same as a Bronco. It needed some beef and power. I took out the old pickup (looked like a Strat unit - 6 pole pieces, set flat, not staggered). All I had laying around was a Bill Lawrence L-250 - a bladed Strat pickup. Worked great, and was twice as loud. If I did it again, I'd add some active EQ to it and it would kick ass. No routing necessary to fit the pickup, and they are very affordable. They sell for the same price they did back in the late 70's - $55.
 
Re: Bronco bass

longcat has a Cool Rails bridge in her Bronco. I'd heard on talkbass that the Hot Rails bridge was too hot, and I wanted something with a bit more than the Cool Rails neck model. I chose the Cool Rails bridge over the Hot Rails neck because I wanted a bit of a dip in the midrange to avoid mud. I also had a Hipshot Kick@ss bridge installed and IMO the bass sounds like Jamerson when strung with LaBella flats.

Pics:
pS3gmer.jpg


xdB7UbI.jpg
 
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