Squier Bronco Bass pickup upgrades advice needed?

stonevibe

I acquired a Squier Bronco Bass, which was found abandoned by a canal a few years ago and given to me.

I've set it up, and it plays so much better than it ought to. Plus, as it is a short scale, my guitarist's brain loves playing it, and it has fast become my 'couch bass'. 

My question is that I would like to look for a slightly meatier pickup to replace the stock 'Strat' one, and so I wondered if anyone here may know of anything that would suit my needs.

Ideally, I would like some meat, with clarity, and I mainly play post-punk and rock stuff these days. 

I love this cheap bass's simplicity, short scale, and neck. It feels ace, so it might be worth investing a few quid in a decent pickup with more balance across the four strings in output.

 

stonevibe

I have seen these but they look overpriced

https://www.homeoftone.co.uk/blogs/news/new-squier-bronco-bass-upgrade-kit

stonevibe

Maybe a Hot Rail pickup?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144140836493?var=443444555758

paulnb57

I used a SC size rail HB pickup in mine, worked a treat

victorludorum

Mine has a Firebird pickup and I like it. I had a Lace Sensor Gold in there once, but wanted something meatier and settled on the Firebird, but there are various flavours of Lace with higher outputs if you can find one.

stonevibe

Awesome. You both have backed up a few of my ideas. Cheers for the input!

prowla

Just a note: a Squier Bronco is a <£100 instrument, so beware of chucking too much money at it.

Flanging_Fred

You could try Toltec pickups. They’re available on eBay and are hand wound in the UK. I’ve not tried one myself but they seem to get good reviews and  make Bronco specific models.

stonevibe

prowla said:

Just a note: a Squier Bronco is a <£100 instrument, so beware of chucking too much money at it.

Just a note: It was found abandoned by a canal, so it is worth at least £100.23... 

Currently, it owes me absolutely nothing (though I have just ordered the super cheap rail pickup to try out)

stonevibe

Flanging_Fred said:

You could try Toltec pickups. They’re available on eBay and are hand wound in the UK. I’ve not tried one myself but they seem to get good reviews and  make Bronco specific models.

I'm too cheap to spend money on a hand wound UK specific Bronco pickup unless someone else has tried one and has told me it is worth its weight in gold (or printer ink) 

prowla

stonevibe said:

prowla said:

Just a note: a Squier Bronco is a <£100 instrument, so beware of chucking too much money at it.

Just a note: It was found abandoned by a canal, so it is worth at least £100.23... 

Currently, it owes me absolutely nothing (though I have just ordered the super cheap rail pickup to try out)

Noted.

victorludorum

They're perfectly good basses and the neck is nice if you ask me. If you're a full time bass player then maybe a Bronco wouldn't be your first choice, but for the player who uses a bass every now and then and maybe just wants to use one for recording, they're ideal.

stonevibe

I own a few bass guitars, this one was just a nice freebie and it is great for working out basslines whilst sat on the sofa. I usually plug it into an Yamaha amp to work out stuff or to record with. It plays a lot better than it ought to considering it is a super cheap bass. 

ICBM

You do get the odd duff one - the school my kids went to had about five or six of them, and a couple were a bit dead-sounding - but a friend had one which is so good, dead stock, that he sold his Mexican Std P-Bass… which itself was a good one. He’s a guitarist who plays bass occasionally, but it’s perfectly decent for that.

If you find the rails pickup too middy and muddy, try wiring it in parallel not series - that sounds very good for bass usually, clearer and more dynamic than series. To do that, disconnect the red and white wires, and connect one to the green wire (probably the white) and one to the black (probably red) - if you get silence, it’s the other way round .

stonevibe

ICBM said:

You do get the odd duff one - the school my kids went to had about five or six of them, and a couple were a bit dead-sounding - but a friend had one which is so good, dead stock, that he sold his Mexican Std P-Bass… which itself was a good one. He’s a guitarist who plays bass occasionally, but it’s perfectly decent for that.

If you find the rails pickup too middy and muddy, try wiring it in parallel not series - that sounds very good for bass usually, clearer and more dynamic than series. To do that, disconnect the red and white wires, and connect one to the green wire (probably the white) and one to the black (probably red) - if you get silence, it’s the other way round .

Useful information. Nice one.

Dave_Mc

stonevibe said:

Flanging_Fred said:

You could try Toltec pickups. They’re available on eBay and are hand wound in the UK. I’ve not tried one myself but they seem to get good reviews and  make Bronco specific models.

I'm too cheap to spend money on a hand would UK specific Bronco pickup unless someone else has tried one and has told me it is worth its weight in gold (or printer ink) 

That's his point, they're UK-handwound but actually very cheap. He doesn't have any up at the moment (at the cheaper prices, I mean), but he often puts ones up for bidding on Ebay starting at around £30-£40, and if you're lucky no-one else bids it up. IIRC his Bronco one is actually a hot one, which would presumably suit what you're after, too. I haven't tried his Bronco pickup, but his guitar and Jazz Bass pickups are great. (I got a set of his Jazz Bass pickups for about £45, for example. Admittedly- I had to buy covers separately.)

stonevibe

After a jam session this week I reckon a humbucking pickup would be less noisy than the single coil. Once this blade pickup arrives I will test it out and report back.

ICBM

stonevibe said:

After a jam session this week I reckon a humbucking pickup would be less noisy than the single coil. Once this blade pickup arrives I will test it out and report back.

I’ve said this before, but I don’t think any bass should now be made without a hum-cancelling pickup, or at the very worst a RWRP pair like a Jazz - it’s perfectly possible to make even something like a ‘51 Precision pickup hum-cancelling if you really want.

Hum is harder to EQ out of a bass sound than a guitar, because 50/60Hz are fully within the note range of the instrument. ‘Modern’ noise from switch-mode power supplies, lighting etc is no less of a problem for bassists either.

stonevibe

ICBM said:

stonevibe said:

After a jam session this week I reckon a humbucking pickup would be less noisy than the single coil. Once this blade pickup arrives I will test it out and report back.

I’ve said this before, but I don’t think any bass should now be made without a hum-cancelling pickup, or at the very worst a RWRP pair like a Jazz - it’s perfectly possible to make even something like a ‘51 Precision pickup hum-cancelling if you really want.

Hum is harder to EQ out of a bass sound than a guitar, because 50/60Hz are fully within the note range of the instrument. ‘Modern’ noise from switch-mode power supplies, lighting etc is no less of a problem for bassists either.

Yeah, I would agree with this and it is an easy remedy to use a pickup that isn’t as susceptible to extraneous interference these days. 

stonevibe

It arrived 30 minutes ago. I just fitted it, and already, it sounds meatier and has no annoying hum.

I will whack it through my bass amp at volume later and see how it holds up at gig volumes.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out; all your knowledge was beneficial.

Dave_Mc

^ Nice!