Bronco bass mod help!

[Nathan1709]

Apologies if this has already been posted. Basically as those of you who read my introduction will know, I'm looking to mod my recently acquired Squier Bronco bass. Got a few ideas of what I want to do with it. Basically in a nutshell I plan to;

Dull the awful shiny poly finish with some wet and dry paper to give it a more matte or satin look
Replace the stock white Pickguard with a matte black one.
Change the pickup for something more beefy (thinking a SD Quarter Pounder or Hot Rails)
Change the tuners for something a bit more stable.

I'd really appreciate any advice that anyone can give me on dulling the finish of the guitar. I have read loads of articles on this already but you can never have too much information!

The pickguard is proving problematic. I cannot find anywhere that sells an aftermarket replacement which fits straight on. I've tried WD and all the usual places. The only joy I have had is with a guy who makes custom guards to order, who can make me a black gloss guard which I can sand down for a matte finish but understandably that's a bit pricey so any advice you guys can give me as to where I can find one would be much appreciated. I've even contemplated (and researched) painting the stock one but that seems to be a non-starter.

For a bit of extra context I am very poorly equipped in terms of tools and also practical skills).

Thanks in advance.

[PlungerModerno]

[quote name='Nathan1709' timestamp='1475153559' post='3143495']
Apologies if this has already been posted. Basically as those of you who read my introduction will know, I'm looking to mod my recently acquired Squier Bronco bass. Got a few ideas of what I want to do with it. Basically in a nutshell I plan to;

Dull the awful shiny poly finish with some wet and dry paper to give it a more matte or satin look
Replace the stock white Pickguard with a matte black one.
Change the pickup for something more beefy (thinking a SD Quarter Pounder or Hot Rails)
Change the tuners for something a bit more stable.

I'd really appreciate any advice that anyone can give me on dulling the finish of the guitar. I have read loads of articles on this already but you can never have too much information!

The pickguard is proving problematic. I cannot find anywhere that sells an aftermarket replacement which fits straight on. I've tried WD and all the usual places. The only joy I have had is with a guy who makes custom guards to order, who can make me a black gloss guard which I can sand down for a matte finish but understandably that's a bit pricey so any advice you guys can give me as to where I can find one would be much appreciated. I've even contemplated (and researched) painting the stock one but that seems to be a non-starter.

For a bit of extra context I am very poorly equipped in terms of tools and also practical skills).

Thanks in advance.
[/quote]

If you can't do it yourself - you can either pay somebody to do it (and that's usually not cheap) or learn to do it yourself (that's usually cheaper, but takes a couple of goes to get acceptable results. Also tools can be a massive overhead. Fortunately most tools can be replaced with elbow grease (hand tools instead of power tools etc.).

Try it if you're willing to risk the paint job - otherwise try it on something more disposable first. When it comes to the pickguard, most off the shelf parts aren't a good fit for non american made fenders IME - especially older models that varied over the years.

[Nathan1709]

Thanks very much for the reply. I'm lucky in that I have a mate who builds his own guitars who will help with advice and tools if necessary. I'm happy to try the finish dulling myself as I've read up quite extensively about it and I've ordered a set of wet and dry paper ranging from 240 to 2000 grain. Planning to take it very steady working by hand and gradually work through the grains to the finest one. I can T-cut out any obvious swirls and to be quite honest, I am not too worried about making a mistake as it's just a £180 bass. I will however start on the back in an unobtrusive place to test it out first.

[Twincam]

http://www.originalscratchplates.com
In pretty sure would do you a scratch plate if you send the one you have in to get a pattern off it. And isn't that pricey.
Regarding the pu anything is poss with routing. Without then any strat pu fits and there are some good ones that suit bass. Many got a lipstick style one too.
For the paint well you could just work the body with different grades of wet and dry and finishing it off with very fine polishing papers etc

[ikay]

A replacement bridge with 4 saddles is worth thinking about - [url="https://www.talkbass.com/threads/squier-bronco-bridge-replacement.854324/"]https://www.talkbass.com/threads/squier-bronco-bridge-replacement.854324/[/url]

[Manton Customs]

For the finish you don't need to work through the grades. We do that to level the finish and yours will already be perfectly level. So start at the grade of paper you anticipate finishing on, 2000 may well work, but if that's not dull enough you can always go down a grade after testing it. Sand wet but don't get water in any open holes, or the wood will swell and you'll crack the finish. Quite a few people like 0000 steel wool for this deglossing job, but make sure you've removed the pickups and placed them a long way away if you go that route! Whatever you do go nowhere near any finish with the 240 grit you mentioned, that will most likely scratch it beyond repair.

Speaking of "scratch it" have you tried them for the pick guard?

Good luck .

[Norris]

I was also going to suggest 0000 wire wool for dulling the finish

[Nathan1709]

Thanks again for the replies. I'll look into the scratchplate link provided. I was thinking if I can only get a gloss finish one I'll fill it myself.

The tip about starting with the 2000 grain paper and increasing the coarseness as required is a really good idea. I'm planning on totally stripping the guitar down to its constituent parts so I'll have an unadorned body to work with. Do you think I'd be better with a really fine grain wire wool rather than wet and dry paper?

Re: the bridge. I did consider that and I may end up doing it but the bass is pretty well intonated so I'll leave the for now and maybe do it last. Looking forward to starting. I'm having to fight the urge to just dive right in but I want to make sure I'm prepared properly and do it right first time.

I really appreciate all the help!

[Nathan1709]

Just looked at the scratchplate link and that's the guy I've already spoken to. He is pretty reasonable (quoted me £35 posted) and I probably will end up using him. I just wondered if anyone knew of an off the shelf part I could get to save time and a bit of money.

[Nathan1709]

Also re: the routing. I haven't taken my bass apart yet but from the research I've done it looks like the routing is pretty generous, plenty big enough for a humbucker but I like the look of a singlecoil sized pickup but with the noise reduction of a humbucker so I'll probably go for a stacked singlecoil. I may even go the lipstick pickup route as I think it'd look great.

[Manton Customs]

[quote name='Nathan1709' timestamp='1475181133' post='3143894']


The tip about starting with the 2000 grain paper and increasing the coarseness as required is a really good idea. I'm planning on totally stripping the guitar down to its constituent parts so I'll have an unadorned body to work with. Do you think I'd be better with a really fine grain wire wool rather than wet and dry paper?


I really appreciate all the help!
[/quote]

Either will work fine As you've got it I'd use the 2000. Just make sure you use a block to keep it flat on the top and back, you can use Steelwool on a block (and wet) also. It'll take very little effort to uniformly dull it.

[Nathan1709]

Thanks very much for the heads up on the block. Any recommendations on strings? Thinking of ghs precision but I want to make sure I get the best strings for my bass.

[Grangur]

[quote name='Nathan1709' timestamp='1475432977' post='3145880']
Thanks very much for the heads up on the block. Any recommendations on strings? Thinking of ghs precision but I want to make sure I get the best strings for my bass.
[/quote]

Please define "best"? All these things are subjective.
Different strings will give different tones. What sort of music will you play?
Do you have any idea of the sound you want?
What's your budget?

[Nathan1709]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1475545198' post='3146836']
Please define "best"? All these things are subjective.
Different strings will give different tones. What sort of music will you play?
Do you have any idea of the sound you want?
What's your budget?
[/quote]

I half anticipated this after realising that I had skimped on the details. Apologies, I was replying on my phone so rushed it a bit.

In terms of what style I play, I guess like a lot of you on here, it is really varied. I make hip hop beats and use the bass to lay down lines for that, but I also play garage rock and stoner rock/sludge so to be honest I need strings which run the gamut in terms of style but if I had to nail it down I'd say I wanted a punchy, warm bass sound which is well suited to the sampling style of hip hop I love. Think the bass from Express Yourself by Charles Wright. I can make it work for anything else.

Not really got a budget per se but common sense would apply. I am a relative beginner with a £180 bass, so ideally I won't be spending £70 on a set of strings but if they give me the sound I want then I might be willing to consider it! Other than that, price isn't really an issue.

[neepheid]

I'm with you on the lipstick pickup:





It was a GFS strat bridge (8K) one. It was quite a few years ago, so I don't remember where I got it from or where I got the black pickguard, sorry. I also fitted full size tuners and the Squier Musicmaster 4 saddle bridge - if I remember correctly the mounting screws aren't in the same place as the 2 saddle bridge, needed filling and redrilling a couple of them. It's also designed for string through only, so first of all I drilled holes in the back of the plate to allow top loading strings and eventually modded the body to allow the through body stringing. Then I sold it, because I was even more fickle then than I am now

[Nathan1709]

That is a beautiful looking bass. Basically, that's how I'd like mine to end up, only with a dulled red finish. I think that's sold me on the lipstick pickup (provided of course that I can find one that sounds great)

I have considered changing the bridge but I am nervous about drilling and filling etc. In an ideal world I'd source parts that are 'plug and play'. I've been a bit frustrated in that department as it's a lot harder to find aftermarket parts for a Bronco than I had imagined. Still, it wouldn't be fun if it was too easy!