BassApprentice Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 (edited) Hi all After a recent flurry of gear selling my only back up bass is a Squier Musicmaster. I'm at university so I don't really want to have my G&L (my main bass, and pride and joy) sitting around my flat with the potential of something terrible happening to it so the Squier will be the bass I have to noodle around on. I've never really been happy with the tone I've got from the Vista tone pickup and I've heard good things about putting Dimarzio pickups in their place, specifically the Fast Track 2 [url="http://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/strat/hum-canceling-strat/fast-track-2"]http://www.dimarzio....at/fast-track-2[/url] but they seem a bit harder to come by. I was also looking at the BC-2 [url="http://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/strat/hum-canceling-strat/dimarzio-bc-2"]http://www.dimarzio....t/dimarzio-bc-2[/url] which has very similar output and Bass, Mid and Treble stats as the Fast Track 2. Would this work the same since it has similar balances? Or does anyone have any other recommendations for other replacements? Or would it be recommended to get the stock pickup to get rewound? Cheers! Edited April 21, 2014 by BassApprentice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I'm not sure how the Vista Tone pickup mounts but a lot of folk put a SD Cool Rails Strat humbucker in a Bronco. I put a GFS lipstick pickup in one. Got the bridge one (the hottest wound one at about 8KOhm). Looked amazing and sounded pretty good too. Also Rich (Ou7shined on here) put a real '51 P style pickup in a Squier Musicmaster for me once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I had Bass Doc fit a MIJ Fender P pickup I had loafing around into my old Musicmaster - sounds great! Not a straight fit, needed some routing and a new scratchplate, but it was worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonBassAlpha Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 That lipstick looks great! the cool rails do seem popular for this. Personally, I thought the stock was ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sblueplanet Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I had a '78 USA Musicmaster and the original pup was a 6 pole-piece one from a strat. It was woeful. I had it replaced with a Seymour Duncan SBP-3 with 1/4" pole pieces. Just needed a little filing of the pickguard pup hole to make it fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 I'd recommned the same one I got from brandoni guitars in Wembley for my '71 daphne blue musicmaster - an enclosed cool rails strat humbucker. It fits the original pickguard without needing any modification. It sounds massive. I think it was made by Kent Armstrong and it cost about £30 (but that was some years ago). I also put a hot rails in another musicmaster but I don't rate how that one sounds as much as the cool rails Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redstriper Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 (edited) I have a Bronco and the original strat pick up is a bit thin sounding, especially on the E string. I play reggae, so I need a really deep tone - can anyone recommend the best replacement? I am considering either the Brandoni Cool rail strat humbucker that Jean-Luc recommends, or this one on ebay - [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=161193407153"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=161193407153[/url] PS Sorry for the slight topic hijack Edited April 26, 2014 by redstriper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassApprentice Posted April 28, 2014 Author Share Posted April 28, 2014 Thanks for all the advice folks, think I might try and source a cool rail and see how that goes! [quote name='redstriper' timestamp='1398536148' post='2435077'] I have a Bronco and the original strat pick up is a bit thin sounding, especially on the E string. I play reggae, so I need a really deep tone - can anyone recommend the best replacement? I am considering either the Brandoni Cool rail strat humbucker that Jean-Luc recommends, or this one on ebay - [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=161193407153"]http://cgi.ebay.co.u...em=161193407153[/url] PS Sorry for the slight topic hijack [/quote] That's quite alright Redstriper, best of luck finding a pickup! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redstriper Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 I got the cool rails pick up from Brandoni, but I don't know how to wire it into my Bronco bass - can anyone help? It has 5 wires - black, red, green, white and bare. Any help would be highly appreciated [size=4] [/size] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 For Seymour Duncan, simplest wiring is join red and white together. Green (and bare) is earth, black is hot. http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=color_codes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redstriper Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Thanks for the fast response neepheid [size=4] [/size] So - the red and white are joined and left loose. Green and bare are joined and go to earth - where is that? Black is hot - where is that? Sorry to be so useless! [size=4][attachment=163792:bronco scratch plate.JPG][/size] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 1 humbucker, 1 volume, 1 tone: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=1hum_1vol_1tone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redstriper Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Fantastic! Thanks a lot - I'll give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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