Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Discussion of vintage Jazzmasters, Jaguars, Bass VIs, Electric XIIs and any other offset-waist instruments.
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mkt3000
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Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by mkt3000 » Wed Aug 21, 2019 5:07 am

Found this while poking through Guitar Center's used site, and I got curious. I called and the salesman said that the electronics were replaced, and that it has a pretty rough swimming pool route. Since the price was low enough, I decided to take a risk.

Should arrive next week - let's see if it's a keeper or not.

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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Wed Aug 21, 2019 5:27 am

Nice!

Non-original knobs too. Might be worth trying to track down some originals. They're pretty cool.
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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by Trout » Wed Aug 21, 2019 5:31 am

Necks are often really nice 👍🏼
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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by Danley » Wed Aug 21, 2019 6:05 am

Awesome- love my ‘78 Bronco neck, it’s a bit fuller/rounder than the earlier ones so curious where yours is on that spectrum.
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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by mkt3000 » Wed Aug 21, 2019 6:20 pm

Tracking number received. ETA is Monday.

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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by mkt3000 » Mon Aug 26, 2019 1:14 pm

Look who's here!

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The routing

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And the pickguard/pickups(pardon the weird crop and angle - My leg appears in it because it was on my lap, and there's a pretty nasty bug bite on it.. so I cropped it out)

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Impressions - it's comfortable, but quite heavy - heavier than my Vista Jagmaster and much MUCH heavier than my SG. The neck is slim-ish, identical to my old 78 Musicmaster. I forgot how much I like 7.25" radius necks. I also like that it came with an old hardcase.

I'm unsure what the pickups are, and switch is a 5 way switch, with positions 1-2 going to bridge, position 3 bridge + neck, position 4 neck, and position 5 kill switch - but with no grounding (as well as no shielding), so it hums like crazy.

Beyond that, I'm not really a fan of the pickups. They don't sound good separately, nor do they sound good together.

So if I keep it, at minimum it needs shielding and new electronics. Might go GFS to remain budget friendly. For now, I'm going to sand the interior and hit it up some shielding paint, and put some shielding tape inside the pickguard.

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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by Mechanical Birds » Mon Aug 26, 2019 4:20 pm

Oh man I gotta try one of these things some day. That routing doesn’t look nearly as offensive as it could have, too. If you got a good deal, to me, that looks like a perfectly serviceable little guitar.

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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by mkt3000 » Mon Aug 26, 2019 5:12 pm

Mechanical Birds wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 4:20 pm
Oh man I gotta try one of these things some day. That routing doesn’t look nearly as offensive as it could have, too. If you got a good deal, to me, that looks like a perfectly serviceable little guitar.
The plan is sand it down inside a little to smooth it, then lay down some conductive shielding paint on the fresh wood and some copper tape under the pickguard.

There's no loose wire for a ground anywhere, so I'm trying to figure out solutions - so far, since this was a cheap Bronco, I'm thinking equally low budget pickups - maybe GFS Gold Foils under some old black pickup covers, so I don't have to route more wood.

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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by Danley » Mon Aug 26, 2019 6:09 pm

At least some used Seymour Duncans should be below budget too - I'd just ground the cavity to the back of a pot or something.
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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by mulesing » Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:19 pm

Looks awesome! No wonder it’s so heavy that bridge is a huge chunk of metal lol. I love the lettering on the word Bronco.

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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:15 am

Well, there's plenty more wood under that pickguard to route out, if you want it lighter. ;)

Any idea what vibrato arm these guitars take? A mustang one perhaps?
I love the look of these tailpieces but have often wondered if they're actually any good at staying in tune.

Cool guitar!
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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by Pacafeliz » Tue Aug 27, 2019 6:49 am

Love Broncos! Mine is not heavy at all... weird.

Slap a WRHB in there man! :w00t:
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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by s_mcsleazy » Tue Aug 27, 2019 2:16 pm

Pacafeliz wrote:
Tue Aug 27, 2019 6:49 am
Love Broncos! Mine is not heavy at all... weird.

Slap a WRHB in there man! :w00t:
i still have gas for your broncoblaster
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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by Pacafeliz » Tue Aug 27, 2019 10:36 pm

s_mcsleazy wrote:
Tue Aug 27, 2019 2:16 pm
Pacafeliz wrote:
Tue Aug 27, 2019 6:49 am
Love Broncos! Mine is not heavy at all... weird.

Slap a WRHB in there man! :w00t:
i still have gas for your broncoblaster
I would too! :P
i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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Re: Incoming NGD. 1976 Bronco

Post by fenderheavy » Wed Aug 28, 2019 12:27 pm

That neck pickup looks like an older Dimarzio sds-1

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