Teesee

I've ordered the Artec now, ETA 12th Aug, will let you know how I get on. 👍

Thanks neepheid, that has been amazingly helpful.👍😍. Thinking on it I had an Artec mini humbucker in my Harley Benton RB-414 that I sold just recently and I was always impressed with the quality of that. I also take on board what you're saying about rounded ends as I'm a finger only player, but I reckon I'll take a punt on the Artec first and just cut the PG to accomodate the lipstick (probs about the centreline if the existing split of the p's) and give that a try - It'll look ugly until I get a new PG but at least it'll give me an idea of whether I can get on with the rouded edges. Failing that, then I'll go for the Armstrongs if I cant get on with the Artecs. Cheers mate, this has been really helpful. 👍

I'm now the proud owner of a Hartwood Satellite that came in the post on Thursday. I love vintage and retro looking guitars and for the price I could not resist. I'm not completely down with the split p's in terms of looks - though I will admit they do sound quite good in that neck position. Originally I was thinking about putting a big old Thunderbird style just to compliment the looks and to give it a bit more of a surf punk sound, but I also have a Rascal and a Newport which also caters for that kind of look. Someone on that 'other site' across the pond suggested lipsticks, which I'll admit is totally growing on me, but most folks over there are very good at spending other people's money and I'm trying to source a lipstick that would not break the bank say up to £35 max, so no SD's for me. I'm also very confused with the outputs of lipsticks and the fact that some have "folds" and some do not. This is totally alien to me who is just used to putting in SC's or Humbuckers, 😕if anyone can explain to me what folds are I'd be dead grateful. I also understand that lipsticks are primarily used in guitars, but my Bronco has a 6 pole strat in it and it sounded great before I swapped it for a McNelly, so I'm not too fussed about using a guitar pickup as long as it isn't reedy or wheezy. I'm wondering if anyone could recommend a lipstick that's readily available over here - I have been looking at Roswells but ordering them direct to UK appears a very convoluted business, and Amazon carry a few no names but the majority have no reviews so I don't know whether what I bought from them would be any good. I know I'll have to have a new PG made up, but that's the plan anyway, eventually I want it red like a paupers Backlund, 😁, maybe reshape the headstock and nitro it to colour code with the body, I've also a Guyker GB 1020 bridge arriving on the twelfth of never which'll I reckon look great on the retro styling. If anyone on here has put reasonably priced lipsticks on their guitars, I'd love to hear their recommendation. Thanks all.👍

Hi All. When I was modding the bronco the first time around, there was something I didn't mention as I was too embarrassed to say it. I wrecked the brand new McNelly broncomaster pickup before I ever had a chance to hear it! 🤦‍♂️. I did this as I'd just finished shielding with copper and I had just mounted the pickup and saw what I thought was a thin sliver of copper underneath the pickup. Without thinking I used my little finger to just brush it away before I realised I'd actually broken the hair thin piece of copper wire from the coil to the hot output! Obviously I was horrified, I'd bought it from James' Home Of Tone which was an hours drive away, so I went round the next day and bought a second pickup. While I was there I showed James the original damaged pickup and he said "leave it with me, I'll see if it is repairable". He got back to me last week bless him and said he'd repaired it, FOC. And posted it to my home as well. Above and beyond James 👍. So to cut a very long story short, I now have a spare broncomaster. I've removed the old (new) one that hasn't been damaged. The ex damaged one is on my guitar now and sounds ace. This pickup has been fitted once, so the ground lead has been cut to expose the wire to ground on both pots, and the jack. All pre-tinned now. The hot lead was cut from it's original length to fit the volume pot, but can still reach the tone pot if you array that pot 180 degrees to the volume pot. Don't know if that is a dealbreaker or not. The pickup was bought at the end of August and has had little to no use as I've been trying to sort out an intonation problem. The supplied cover is black, but you can get a white one, or just run it without a cover if you prefer. It is supposed to be a 'drop in' replacement but on my Bronco pickguard I had to open the mounting screws out about 1.5mm towards the outer edges of the PG to get a good fit, I mean they wasn't parallel, so the screws were going in at about a 15 deg angle. Pickup fits perfectly through the pickguard hole though so there's no need to open up the PG pup hole, or have it mounted with a gap around it. I'm not going to supply mounting screws, as I used the original screws and springs that came with the bronco. I think they are much better than the supplied piece of plastic pipe which I've lost anyway. The pickup cost me £135 but I'll be happy to take £55 inc postage and packing (£50 for the pup £6.90 ish for 24 hour signed for) I'll chuck in the £1.90 to know it's going to go to a good home. The McNelly just seems to sound more well defined than the standard 6 pole strat, but as with everything it's a personal thing. Couple of YT links below as well as other info on the pickup, 2nd YT link shows the guitar with standard pup and McNelly pup. If you read the comments on that link a couple like the standard pup more, but most agree the McNelly sounds better. I thought I’d chuck it on here first in the Bronco thread PM me if interested, before I move it onto the classified section. 1st pic (not very good) shows the 2 pickups, I've just desoldered the "good one", you can just make out the repaired one in top right corner with a little bit of blue on it. 2nd pic shows 'hot' lead length 3rd pic shows the cover 4th pic is the date I bought the pickup highlighted in yellow top right. https://mcnellypickups.com/products/musicmaster-bronco-single-coil-bass-pickup https://www.homeoftone.co.uk/collections/mcnelly-pickups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtRb_m6Kmgc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-OU6IQpST4

PIckguard came, and I'd also ordered a blackSung Il BB404 bridge. Fitting the bridge was a bit squeaky bum time as I was still not sure where the 19mm spacing would throw the strings off the neck much. Working something out in theory is one thing, but practical application is often quite the other. I think it's turned out quite nice. Added an ADE string tree and used the same hole as the old disc tree so there's no un-needed holes in the headstock. One thing I completely missed and/or forgot, I didn't order black pg screws and black strap buttons. I actually like the silver pg screws, and still in 2 minds about the buttons. No biggy if I want to change tho.

Speaking of machine heads - after I posted the first message, a basschatter - sifi2112 - got in touch with me said he had some Gotohs but they was black, at first I was thinking chrome but I got to thinking, well black will go nice with the black pg and so I ordered a black Sung Il BB404 from Northwest Guitars that'll be arriving tomoz. Anyway, took sifi's offer they arrived about an hour and half ago ago, straight into the garage with a round rasp file, opened up the holes and here we are! Got some nice white cupcakes and the white pup cover so I reckon it'll look good! I've got roto flats on it and the 4 pole bass pup just makes it a vintage 70's sound, in my collection maybe something I haven't really got. I know the Sung Il is 19mm spacing but I'm reliably told either on here or the 'other' forum site that there wont be any slipping off the fretboard with the E or G, just less land. I hope they're right I've just filled the old bridge holes with epoxy and wood where I'll shave them flush tomorrow. The old bridge is on it's way to Manchester, as the guy who was cutting the pickguard has a Bronco but with the new 4 saddle and he wanted the 2 saddle, rather than it languishing in my draw he put in a decent donation to charity. Works for me.

Just out of curiosity I went back on his Ebay site, there's a banner now saying he'll be back on 28th October, I missed it by a whisker. I'm getting the new PG tomorrow hope it's OK, but it was twice the price of Brian's. 😭 I'm looking at the rest of my basses to see if any of 'em need a different pickguard now Brian's back in the game! 😆😆

Yeah as I say it's well strange. I didn't realise either that earl was Brian. I was tapping his Ebay site up before but every time I went to place an order I had a message for weeks saying 'this seller is taking a break' and it wouldn't process my order. Kodiakblair mentioned to me that he was moving house which may explain that, he had the very pickguard that I needed. Oh well, hopefully this other outfit will come up good, although I could have saved a few bob had I gone to earl. Never mind, what's done is done. Cheers anyway.

Hmm, that's very odd. It may be that I'm using Nordvpn and it thought I was in a different country, but I always use the UK server so yeah, it must've glitched. Apologies Earlpilanz for losing a sale due to my useless tech skills..

Thanks all, got some new tuners coming in the post from a guy off here, Gotoh GB7 's I will need to open the holes a tadge but for the price I'm not going to complain. 👍

I tried him, but wouldn't ship to UK for some reason at least that's what it said on Ebay when I clicked on the page 😕, however someone on another forum told me to try this place up in Manchester https://tinytone.co.uk/product/scratchplate-builder/#configuration its knocking me back £62 with postage both ways as I'm sending the original to them. That went in the post yesterday so hopefully by next week it'll come back to me. Thanks for the suggestion tho 👍😀

Cheers mate, always good to see a little bass pron and cracking instruments these.. 🙂👍

Lovely looking bass mate, they're little packages of dynamite IMHO for bangs per buck really happy with mine and how she sounds - just the tuners to upgrade and I'll be a happy bunny 😄 On a similar note, already someone has offered me a set of Gotoh's for a good price which look like they'll fit so I'm gonna take those up :👍

I have a lovely little Bronco I bought for my son in around 2002 - 2003, I recently liberated it from the garage after 20 years cleaned it up added new pots, cap and jack socket, a McNelly pickup to replace the old 6 pole strat, and of course new strings - Roto flats in this case. Sounds lovely and proud, I really like it except for the bridge and machine heads. Bronco parts appear to be like rocking horse poo, even trying to get a pickguard is a nightmare - I'm having a black one made up - but that's a different story! The real horrible thing about this lovely bass are the machine heads/tuners. They have a very coarse adjustment which makes it really hard to get into tune and stay in tune, one slight touch and they'll go up or down a pitch, really horrible. Also they suffer from tightening and loosening in differing arcs of the turn i.e the post will flap about or be rock solid depending where you've turned the key which suggests to me either the 'rack' or the 'pinion' has not been machined to their tolerances. Ideally I'd like a drop in replacement with a finer action as I really don't want to drill out the headstock holes if I can help it and also not exceed the footprint of the back plate where they may interfere with their neighbour when it comes to fitting. The diameter of the post is 9.5 mil, the diameter of the holes in the headstock is 11.5 mil. If need be I will have to drill out the headstock, but that just involves me shelling out more for a drill and or/reamer. I've been going cross eyed and getting a headache trying to find replacement tuners so if any of you guys know what I could get and where I'd really appreciate it. Budget - upto perhaps £70 a set but prefer lower😉 Cheers TC

Gotta say Davie is a brilliant an fantastic bloke. Top notch fella. Not only have I learned a hell of a lot from him about basses and builds in other forums, but have dealt with him on buying and selling. I ordered a Roswell Filtertron from DE but got confused and ordered 2 by mistake. They wouldn't let me cancel the other one, but in steps Davie who bought it straight from me. We agreed a price and I insisted he didn't pay until it came through his door. The cash was in my bank before I posted it FFS! Recently I wanted a template to cut the headstock on my PB to the old tele style, a couple of days later it arrived as an MDF template, I was expecting a bit of paper! I asked him how much he wanted and he told me to put some money into a local charity box. I donated a fiver to breast cancer as his P&P was £1.40 and his time and material must've come to £3 so, yeah he's a good bloke and someone you can trust in any transaction. He don't suffer fools gladly, i.e. folks that just talk **** about their new £2000 guitar but are just badge whores, but will spend any amount of his time, vast experience and knowledge coaxing us newbies not to go down the rabbit hole of spending stupid money for something that won't really matter to how your guitar sounds. Brilliant bloke, glad to know him and thank god for him he lives such a long way from me, otherwise I'd be round his house every day!!! 😁