Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

[TwilightOdyssey]

I've had this bass for ages, but for some reason have never really played it. In need of a bass for some recording, I pulled it out from its cryogenic rest and gave it a good cleaning and setup. Once that was done, I assessed that the bass is certainly playable, but the pickup is AWFUL.

After doing some research, I learned that it's just a single coil guitar pickup in there! I went to Stew-Mac and ordered their Golden Age P-bass pickup because I figured for $50, it was worth the chance.

After doing some more research online, it became clear that I would need something to enlarge the rout on the bass. I picked up a Dremel tool (coolest thing EVER) and after about 2 hours of work, had both the guitar and scratch plate cut. Unfortunately, the route Fender provides was not only too small in terms of length and width, but too LARGE in terms of depth. A quick crafts project was in order using PVA glue and a mess of craft sticks to build up the cavity.

When all was said and done, the bass now looks like this:



Rough, but it works.

What's more important, of course, is how it sounds:

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

Christ, that is some high-class work right there.

I think my Bronco sounds great completely stock. To each his own.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

I tried to get a good tone from the stock pickup, but couldn't. It was so indistinct and wooly.

 

[BlueTalon]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

I'd have replaced it, too. But I probably would have replaced it with a pickup that would fit in the original route.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

^ I don't think there's much of a selection there. Besides, it's not hard to build a new pickguard from a sheet of blank material.

Sounds good, TO!

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

The most common mod seems to be using a rail pickup; but since they are not really voiced for bass, I didn't want to do that.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

Flat-poled Strat pickups will fit in the stock rout, and under the stock cover. Staggered-poled Strat pickups will fit too, but will need to be shimmed underneath the cover, or used without a cover (or with a trim ring). Guitar pickups will work absolutely fine in there. The original Musicmasters (on which the Broncos are based) didn't use a specially designed pickup. For over 10 years they just used six-poled Musicmaster guitar pickups (same size as Strat pickups, but with non-staggered mags). And, of course, rail pickups designed for Strat-sized holes will work too, and will eliminate any nagging fears you still might have about pole spacing. Given the huge selection of Strat pickups of every possible wind, magnet stagger, and magnet type, there is actually a quite wide selection of replacement pickups for the Broncos. But whatever you put in there probably sounds great too.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squier Bronco

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squier Bronco

The stock Bronco pickup is a guitar single coil. One obvious option is to replace it with another single coil sized guitar pickup. My suggestion is the EMG-SX or -SAX. You could also liven things up with an active EQ system.

My Chapman Stick uses two EMG-FT Tele neck pickups. The bass frequency reproduction is huuuuuuuuge!

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

That's a good idea. I think I'm going to put P-bass pickups in a Telecaster.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

Fender kinda already built that for yez. The late Sixties type 1 Telecaster Bass.

 

[BlueTalon]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

^ I don't think there's much of a selection there. Besides, it's not hard to build a new pickguard from a sheet of blank material.

There's not much of a selection for a direct replacement bass pickup with the same dimensions. But they do exist.

The pickup route is much larger than required for the stock pickup. I would have liked to see a picture of the bass with the pickguard off and the old pickup still in place, before he started doing anything, just to see how much room was available relative to the pickup. Here's a picture of the hole.

I didn't know that when I made my first post, I thought the pickup route in the wood was about the same size as the hole in the pickguard. I wouldn't go to the trouble of routing out any wood for a new pickup. Not in that bass, anyway.

In my first post, I really wasn't even thinking about the pickguard.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

Is the Precision-Tele bass single coil pickup capable of fitting in there?

What are these bronco basses like anyway?

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

The stock rout is probably big enough for a humbucking guitar pickup.

The stock pup is centered on the rout.

The p bass pup is a totally different shape and takes up about 50% more space.

As for whether it is 'worth' doing:

Is an overdrive 'worth' $600? I dunno. But it is worth it to the people that do it and if they can afford it, more power to em.

Regardless of precedent, the stock pickup is pants.

For $90 I got a new pickup, a new power tool which will see a lot of use, and a fun project I have never tried before.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

T I would have liked to see a picture of the bass with the pickguard off and the old pickup still in place, before he started doing anything, just to see how much room was available relative to the pickup.

I thought about doing a photojournal of the entire process, and perhaps that would have been the best, but I really didn't think there was much call for it!

The rout on your Bronco is also a bit different than mine; my grounding wire seems to be going through the body to the bridge; I tried removing the bridge, but it appears to be glued in place!

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

There are p-bass routed mustang pickguards available on ebay. I replaced my bridge with a cast 4 saddle bridge and replaced the pickup with a left over BL 500XL. Your only real choice for direct pickup replacement is a strat pickup with rails or bar magnet. In the future I am going to find a three ply pickguard and put a Lace Red Sensor in there instead.

 

[BlueTalon]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

I thought about doing a photojournal of the entire process, and perhaps that would have been the best, but I really didn't think there was much call for it!

The rout on your Bronco is also a bit different than mine; my grounding wire seems to be going through the body to the bridge; I tried removing the bridge, but it appears to be glued in place!

Any time you do a project like this, you should photojournal it. There's a lot more interest than you might think. You never know when some process you did might stimulate an idea or solve a problem for someone working on their own project. Even photos of an "oops" moment can be helpful (if not entertaining).

BTW, that's not my Bronco. That's just an image I googled when I was wondering what the bass looked like beneath the pickguard.

And I want to take back something I said. I said I wouldn't want to route out any wood to make a pickup fit on this bass, not worth the trouble. It's truly not worth the trouble, which is what makes it so perfect as a practice platform for trying out any news routes and pickups you might want to try.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

There are p-bass routed mustang pickguards available on ebay.

Mustang scratch plate is totally different from the Bronco...

 

[BlueTalon]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

I recommend getting a stock black Bronco pickguard. Do the mod yourself. Be a little more careful this time, learn from what you did last time. You will end up with a better pickguard -- and any mistakes or irregularities will be a lot harder to see.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

I recommend getting a stock black Bronco pickguard. Do the mod yourself. Be a little more careful this time, learn from what you did last time. You will end up with a better pickguard -- and any mistakes or irregularities will be a lot harder to see.

Oh, I have no intention of making this bass pretty in the least; it's a work horse, and shall be treated accordingly. It has a new pickup, and now has to just shut up and get on with the job!

 

[BlueTalon]

Re: Bustin' the Bronco: upgrading the pickup in my Squire Bronco

By the way, is this more like what yours was like inside?