NFBD- Squier Bronco

[Bleat]

NFBDR- New Fun Bass Day Review

Well as I found myself back on a budget , and conceded defeat to advancing age not being fully compatible with the weight of Les Paul style basses, and having owned the fabulous Gretsch Junior Jet short scale, but not now able to work in that price bracket for the foreseeable, I found myself asking some pretty deep and meaningful questions, for example:

" I need a bass, I will actually die without a bass, but which one for under £200 ?",

"Should I stay long scale, and be a real bass player or risk being the laughing stock of the bass playing world by going for another shorty?"

"Should I take a risk of catching herpes from a used, possibly stolen but decent bass, with the slight bonus of maybe finding a small bag of weed hidden in the control cavity, from Cash Converters?"

"What colour should I go for? What would make me potentially look really cool … Sunburst, Black, Natural etc etc?"

So armed with my virtual £200.00 I decided that as I was already halfway to the dark side after stints with short and medium scale and loved the playability, I opted to go for short scale with the intention of staying there ,so went for a look around proper online guitar shops to see what's on offer as I decided I didn't want to catch an infection from Cash Converters or eBay on this occaision. 

I had seen the Bronco before but not given it much consideration at the time, and to be honest there's a real lack of choice out there currently... The Ibanez Talman looks like it's been designed late on a Friday afternoon after a lunchtime booze up then sent to the far east to be put together by underpaid Asian elephants.... forget that. There was also the Dean Evo Xm, which I had for a short while but it went back as there was just too much wrong with it, including a really narrow 38mm nut which is not my favourite. A real shame cos it has the les paul vibe and a pretty decent sounding instrument. I saw Jackson minions , Ibanez micro things, possibly something else , but I really liked the look of the Bronco bass and reviews seemed to be generally favourable, so opted naturally for a black one as they only come in black or bright red, and red Fenders remind me of Hank Marvin and the Shadows which is just not cool for an ageing has-been mid 40's Rockstar!

So I found the cheapest price which currently is GAK at £149.00 inc next day delivery, so that's where I purchased from. It arrived yesterday as promised in a Box with F logos and Squier branding. No other fancy packaging, just the instrument wrapped up with a couple of warning labels saying if I touch it I risk getting cancer or something, and a free set of allen keys to add to my already large collection of allen keys.

Pulled out the little Bronco noting it's very reasonable weight, and then spending a few minutes admiring it's little glossy black coat, and generally handsome appearence. As I generally go for very light gauge bass strings , I liked the fact it comes fitted with what I will assume are Fender 40-95's so that was good. Not really much in the way of floppiness on the E string, or any other string for that matter. It has a really nice shape to the compact body , balances well, I like the stubby little horns, and it has a nice comfortable, though little anaemic looking maple neck. It has the Squier bronco bass logo in black on the headstock with "by Fender" underneath. On the back it says "made in Indonesia". The scratch plate is a simple 1 ply white, with a couple of decent feeling chrome knobs for volume and tone.

After reading some of the negative comments about these like the crap tuners , crap bridge, crap strat pickup, crap body wood, crap electrics, not as good as my vintage $5000 Fender Musicmaster etc etc I realised I was on Talkbass, so I completley disregarded what I read.

To address those concerns, I actually think the tuners are really pretty good and seem quite solid. The tops remind me of Schaller M4's nice and chunky. It's good to see mini tuners as opposed to the big clunky Fender things for a change. The bridge is actually really nice, doesn't feel like a piece of cheese. I love the shape of it, it actually intonates almost spot on despite the 2 strings per saddle setup, and if there was one criticism it would be the slightly bigger gap between the A and D strings. Maybe due to the design of this style of bridge? I can live with the quirk. I can't comment on the electrics or quality as of yet.

First things first, I sat with it unplugged to get a general feel and give it a tweak or 2 before plugging in. I can say it sets up incredibly well. I have the strings almost sat on the fret board with no buzz, the truss rod needed the tiniest of turns to get it just so. The intonation was pretty much spot on as is with no adjustment needed.

Plugging in, to be fair I wasn't expecting much for the money, but to say it has a strat guitar pickup in it, it sounds pretty damn good. Nice sharp punchy tone, not masses of low end, and does seem sensitive to where you are placing your fingers, something I seem to notice more on this bass than with others. Output *is* a little on the low side but tonally absolutely fine (through quality headphones) as far as could be expected at this price. I already have spent a few quid on a hot rail pickup or rather warm rail  which I will try out when it gets here.

As mentioned the neck is lovely. 40 mm nut width , and oddly it has 19 frets (?!).  It's a shame that it doesn't have a vintage tint but I guess 'coz of budget and stuff..... something that could be attended to if needed at some point. It is comfortable to hold and just has that fun "short scale playability", and to me this is what a bass should be regardless of personal ability or at what level...if it ain't fun then what's the point of bothering.

I can bang out a variety of rock/ hard rock/ metal classics on it, putting in very little physical effort, everything from 70's to modern stuff. It just sounds fab, and if I manage to join another band this will be the bass to do it on. No acheing back, no stretching 3 miles to reach the end of the fretboard, has a guitar-like coolness to it etc etc.

While not quite having the same instant wow factor as the Gretsch did, it's also not in that price range, and for what I paid, I am actually even more impressed because of that in a way. Aside from trying a different pickup and possibly changing the pickguard for a 3 ply from that bloke on ebay who sells them, there really isn't much else that I feel needs to be done. Obviously time will tell on that score, but from the outset, it's all good.

Definitely one I will recommend for anyone wanting to see what all the fuss is with SS basses.

Thanks for reading my waffle !

 

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by Bleat

[hooky_lowdown]

I love little bronco's, the tuners maybe ok new, but they won't last. I replaced them with elephant ear ones from a Squier P bass (same enclosed backs), near enough a direct fit. I was then able to fit a used set of fender flatwounds, these strings sound great on this bass, the shorter neck allows a little less tension, and the lack of low end from the stock pickup suddenly is deep and fat.

[Bleat]

I'm really happy with it so far, I like the P-Bass-like simplicity of it. I  will keep my eye on the tuners, maybe they will get changed at some point!

I'm not a flatwound user myself, but something I did forget to mention was the tone control seems acceptably effective. I just turn everything full on personally, but rolling the tone right down does give a slightly bassier feel and definitely does that short scale traditional like thud pretty well.

🎸

[Stub Mandrel]

I was looking at a very nice red one today for a silly low price. Must admit I like the look of my Jag SS a bit more, plus it has P+J pickups, but these Squier short scale basses give you a lot of bass for your money.

[Paul S]

I have the Squier VM Mustang.  A previous owner had replaced the pup with a Nordstrand NM4 and put a cheeky Fender decal on the headstock and I honestly think you'd struggle to tell the difference.  

[dannybuoy]

A lot of people put hot rail mini humbuckers in theirs for a beefier tone, and you can get cheap ones on eBay for about a tenner!

[Bleat]

4 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I was looking at a very nice red one today for a silly low price. Must admit I like the look of my Jag SS a bit more, plus it has P+J pickups, but these Squier short scale basses give you a lot of bass for your money.

I had a 5 string Jag for a while, and  though I found it not to my taste generally , I appreciate the Jag is a bit of a step up as an instrument though. 👍

4 hours ago, dannybuoy said:

A lot of people put hot rail mini humbuckers in theirs for a beefier tone, and you can get cheap ones on eBay for about a tenner!

I am awaiting the arrival a cheap replacement just to try out. It cost me £15.  It's about 10kohm so in theory I should get a bit more output but not rid it of all the high frequencies? That's the plan anyhow! 

[Osiris]

Nice rambling review, @Bleat good effort 😀

But in defence of the Ibanez Talman, I get that the design is a bit marmite, indeed it's a strong contender for the most ridiculous head stock design of all time, but it's a huge amount of bass for very little money. At least mine is! The neck is a chunky P like affair but feels great, and I say that as someone who prefers something slimmer. The body too is reassuringly sturdy but admittedly weighs as much as a housing estate. Mine has had around £50 in upgrades spent on it; New pickups (the stock P wasn't bad but the bridge was weak, I swapped them out for a matched set I had in my box of odds and sods, no idea where they originated), New pots and Jack, New bridge as the stock was a bent bit of tin foil, really it was very flimsy. Shielded the cavity and rolled the fret board edges and job done .

The bass as a whole is very well made, no sharp fret ends, no gap in the neck pocket, the paint job is flawless, the scratch plate fits perfectly and doesn't look like it was cut by a porpoise. I've seen basses that cost many times more that are not as well built. A few £ and a couple of hours work and I have a bass that I regularly gig alongside a couple of others that each cost 10 times as much. 

But it sounds like I need to check out a Bronco all the same 😀

[dannybuoy]

Here's one with one of the aforementioned pickups:

 

[Bleat]

@Osiris
I admit it was refusal based on looks alone for the Talman. Not knocking Ibanez as a brand though. I have owned an SRX which was a superb sounding bass but neck a bit wimpy for my big hands. I also gigged with a Korean ATK for quite a few years, which to be fair is a bit marmite also in the design department, but sounded immense. I was in my mid -late 20's so could still handle that sort of weight around my neck for a couple of hours! Now I'm using my padded comfort strapp even on the little Bronco these days. 

@dannybuoy

If that doesn't convince anyone these are really worthwhile considering as a "serious" instrument I don't know what will !

I concur with the guy on his general opinion, you can't really go wrong with these at the price.

[RossHetherington]

I've often fancied a Jackson JS Series Concert Bass Minion for many giggles it's like a 28" scale length. 

[Bleat]

Well, things have sort of changed very quickly as they sometimes do in my strange little world! I saw this for not too much money, typically just after buying the brand new one ! (doh) . I bought it anyway as it looked cool , also thinking it may have been modified/ upgraded in some way only to find from a bit of internet searching that I seem to have acquired a 1998 Bronco with larger clunky Fender tuners and a tinted maple neck (which I would have liked on the brand new one). Note the headstock logo also.

Sadly the pickup was non working when it arrived, but I put the brand new original one from the new Bronco into it and all is fine and dandy. Note the pickguard has gone a sort of naturally aged yellow tint. Under the knobs which I replaced with Jazz style ones, the guard is as white as the pickup.

Just awaiting an imminent arrival of 3 ply scratch plate replacement intended for the 2019 Bronco, though I might see if I can make it fit on this 1998 one. It does have 12 screws though as opposed to 11 in the newer model.

It just needs a little more tweaking to get it just right, but it's pretty close to being spot on.