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[Bass of the week] Modified Squier Bronco Bass

We put the call out that if anyone wanted to send over some photos of their modified Squier Bronco short scale bass, we’d feature it. Someone did.

(Note before continuing: Yes, this builder did slap a Fender logo on a Squier headstock and installed a Fender bolt plate (boo-hiss), but given it’s extremely unlikely anyone would ever confuse this for an actual Fender, and the fact the builder has no intention of selling it, this one gets a pass – even though we very well know it’s not cool to put Fender branding on a Squier.)

Builder Graham Drew writes:

I am a former repairman and luthier and a semi professional bassist, and most of the basses I play are ones I have built or extensively modded myself. This Bronco used to be black but I had it refinished in Candy Indigo (a blue version of Candy Apple Red) by a friend who owns an auto body shop in Winchester, VA. I upgraded the pickup with a single coil made by Wizard Pickups in the UK who are sadly no longer in business. Other upgrades include a Schaller heavy duty bridge, CTS pots, Switchcraft jack, orange drop capacitor, vintage-style cloth covered wire, real bakelite Fender Jazz Bass Knobs, a Fender ‘F’ neck plate, Classic Vibe 60’s tuners and a custom parchment pearloid pickguard made by Pickguardian. The finishing touch is a 70’s era Fender logo in place of the original Squier logo. The bass sounds, plays and looks amazing and I get comments every time I play it.

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20 thoughts on “[Bass of the week] Modified Squier Bronco Bass”

  1. I forgot to mention when I submitted my bass that the previous owner had already scraped the Squier logo off the headstock, if not for that it would still say Squier on it. And the Fender neck plate was a personal preference. Thanks for featuring my bass!

    Reply
  2. Fantastic looking, & most probably sounding bass! This coming from, as I call myself “an undocumented Luthier”, haha! I’m a self taught Luthier, so that’s what I call myself.One thing we have in common is that we both have discovered Pickguardian, out of Columbus, Ohio. He made me a killer custom guard for my rare pristine condition Fender Proto P-Bass finished in the rare Persimmon Burst finish. It brought the bass to life, visually! The Bronco you’ve “brought to life” both visually & sonically, is one of the few short scale basses I’d ever want to actually hold & play. I’m a session guy & mostly play fretted & fretless long scale basses, but do own a few short scale vintage basses I love. I would be proud to own such a beautiful bass such as yours, that you put so much quality time into, through & through. It really shows & you should be proud.

    Reply
  3. I really like the looks of Graham’s Bronco Bass. A quality job for sure. Fender needs to come out with a Bronco of this quality, I’ll bet the sales to short scale players would make it very profitable to the Fender Bass lineup. I see no problem using a “Fender ” logo on what a lot of Bass & Guitar tinker’s consider & call a “Partscaster” instrument. If I happen to use a Squire neck, I leave on the “Made in China, Indonesia, etc” and the serial # of that country. As long as you state the instrument is a”Partscaster” instrument, and are not trying to pass it off as a Regular Fender, and asking regular Fender prices and charging accordingly. The “Partscaster” is just another way of enjoying and getting involved creatively in guitar & bass…

    Reply
    • Thanks Mikael! The original Squier logo had been scraped off before I even got the bass, so it was a choice between having a messy looking headstock (which I hate) or putting on a Fender logo to hide the scrapes. I chose the latter.

      Reply
  4. Looks great! Did the bridge mount to the existing holes, lining up tonally or was repositioning and re-drilling required?

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    • Thanks James! There was some repositioning needed when drilling for the Schaller bridge, which I did before the refinishing work.

      Reply
  5. Love that blue !

    You’ve given me Bronco envy and got me looking at my Bronco now.
    I’m looking at replacing the pickup with a Gretsch Electromatic Bass 2202 Chrome Pickup. I have one of these fitted into another old Made In Japan ‘No Name’ Bass and its hot!

    Regarding the Tuners, did you have to enlarge the peg hole to fit the brushings etc?

    Reply
    • Hey Brett, I put one of those pickups in another Bronco Bass I modded a while ago and it sounded awesome. Regarding the tuners, this was an earlier Bronco so the tuner holes were already this size.

      Reply
  6. As a couple others have said, I would love to play this! I had a ’70s Mustang that I loved, but it was stolen in the late ’80s. I loved the short scale, as I am a small person. I had a Precision and a Jazz at various times, and the P was top heavy. I spent all my time holding it up! Great looking bass.

    Reply
  7. Hey, I too upgraded a Bronco with a Duncan Performer (rail type strat bridge replacement)
    pickup. Sound was so hot I later rewired it on the milder side as it was so hot you had to be careful how you touched it when turned up but sounded great for a 50’s soul type tone.
    I recently souped up a Ibanez Mikro bass with a DiMarzio split P pickup. Amazing bass.
    Short scale bass rule for most blues and soul tones.

    Reply
  8. Awesome work! When I first had the need to switch to a short scale I bought one of the new Squire Bronco basses, just to see if I liked the scale. It came with a cheap Strat pup in it that sounded terrible so I bought a Seymore Duncan 51 P-bass pup for it and wired it in. Now I have a cheap bass that sounds awesome so the next step is to replace the bridge and make some mods to the electronics. I have decorated it with skull inlay fret markers, skull vol/tone knobs and a Black Flag sticker that Greg Ginn gave me a few years ago because the sound of it just begs to be used as a punk bass!

    Reply
  9. Beautiful job! I had a black Bronco years ago, but want to buy another one for custom work. There’s no shame in putting a Fender logo on it. Fender made it, didn’t they?
    Currently I’m playing a Squier Jaguar SS. I’ve changed the pickguard to white pearloid,
    changed the pup covers to ‘no hole’ and painted the string tree a matte black. The bass is
    red, and red with black just looked poor to me. Oh, and chrome barrel knobs!

    Reply

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