bronco restore

Painting? Routing? Set-up tips? Or just straight-up making a guitar from scratch? Post here, and post pics!

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bronco restore

Post by dots »

pens hooked me up with an awesome bro-deal on a bronco he'd been holding onto as wall art for a while. based on the headstock serial, it's a '76 according to this site, which makes it as old as me!

a previous owner to pens had masking-taped a polaroid (lol) of a horse (lolol) which i have removed and kept for posterity on my bulletin board (lololol). it was wisely shipped to me with the neck removed, and i plan to take it all apart later to do a full inspection of the wiring, pots, jack, and bridge. it's clearly been refinished by the color, and my thought is to strip it and redo it in something cool like fiesta red or shell pank. haven't decided yet. gonna be fun!
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Re: bronco restore

Post by NickS »

Looks cool as a natural relic, but whatever. Has it been refinished once already?
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Re: bronco restore

Post by dots »

It's been refinished at least once and appears to have started its life black. It's also been routed and had the pickguard replaced by some place in Frisco.
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Re: bronco restore

Post by plopswagon »

What a interesting bit of history. You’ll have to name it “Trigger”.

Just a some orange comp stripes ala

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Re: bronco restore

Post by Pens »

Glad to see this guy get some love and attention. I'm not sure I ever took the guard off that thing.

Regarding the finish, at least the refin is also incredibly thin coat as well, so it shouldn't take that much to get it off.

Glad it made the journey back to Cali!
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Re: bronco restore

Post by taylornutt »

NickS wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:05 pm Looks cool as a natural relic, but whatever. Has it been refinished once already?
Fender never did that color for Broncos.

That style of headstock decal is definitely a later run.

If it is in fact a 1976 Bronco, it would have been black or vintage white with a black pickguard.

What's the status of the Bronco trem? Does it work?
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Re: bronco restore

Post by dots »

There's a chip on the outside of the lower bout revealing black paint, and you can see in the neck pocket there's a streak of black that didn't get repainted when it was hung up to shoot.

The bridge/trem seems to be in working order, but I'll need to order a bronco sized reverb handle to use it. I took it all apart and gave it a CLR bath. Shines up great! What's the best way to adjust the height once strings are on? It's a bit low on the controls side and fretting out those strings.

The neck is in great shape, just the right amount of bow, no twist. Tuners may need a little lube but move accurately. There's a few scrapes in the rosewood, and the frets may need dressing at some point soonish. Headstock buffed up nice. There's a thin crack in the finish on the back and a few dings, but I'm in roughly the same shape at the same age. Cleaned many years of grime off the frear board, and it looks superb (even with some feet glue on the upper fret).

Still don't know if it's the original pickup, but it sounded fine for the few seconds I had it plugged in tonight after the reassembly. Pots could be og, but I'll look more closely when I replace the guard. I did put the bronco knobs on. Held onto those for 15 years. 8)

The ground was a single, thin, bare wire run over the body to the bridge post. I replaced it with a thicker one, but is that normal? There's no route for the ground!

Routing. I wish I knew the full story on this body with all the details, but it was definitely rocking two pickups at some point (another reason I doubt the coil is stock). The routing is better than I could have done but it's definitely kinda janky. At least it's not a swimming pool. I'll leave it single pickup when I replace the guard.

I used some guitar polish on the body, and the paint did shine up pretty well. I used a glue remover safe for the paint to get the masking tape off (that shit was shellacked on there), but it reacted with the clear tape I used to protect the exposed primer and started taking off paint in a couple places. Oops. :oops: Not too tragic since I do want to get it refinished later. Thing has character for sure.

Anyway, super stoked, the neck feels and plays great. It's going to be a fun project that I can't wait to get dialed in and track with!

Ensue giant photo bomb (can't be arsed to resize while phonescaling).
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Re: bronco restore

Post by taylornutt »

dots wrote: Sat Apr 01, 2023 4:45 am
The bridge/trem seems to be in working order, but I'll need to order a bronco sized reverb handle to use it. I took it all apart and gave it a CLR bath. Shines up great! What's the best way to adjust the height once strings are on? It's a bit low on the controls side and fretting out those strings.

You will need to adjust the height of the two posts to raise the action. The top plate pivots against them. You are fortunate the trem is not missing anything. My Bronco has a similar ground wire, though mine is not currently working. I don't have my neck shimmed currently and it lines up correctly.

My bronco came with a modified Strat Vibrato arm that works well. I have an original Bronco Vibrato arm , but the Strat one is a little taller. You could substitute a Mustang Vibrato arm for the Bronco since they are pretty similar. I saw Puisheen on Youtube use a Jaguar arm even.

Mustang arm on top and Modified Strat arm on bottom.
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Re: bronco restore

Post by sunshiner »

Looks as if it has a lot of character. I like the colour and am gonna miss the horse.
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Re: bronco restore

Post by Nick »

Man, I really need to crack the password for the super secret classifieds.
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Re: bronco restore

Post by dots »

taylornutt wrote: Sat Apr 01, 2023 6:35 am
dots wrote: Sat Apr 01, 2023 4:45 am
The bridge/trem seems to be in working order, but I'll need to order a bronco sized reverb handle to use it. I took it all apart and gave it a CLR bath. Shines up great! What's the best way to adjust the height once strings are on? It's a bit low on the controls side and fretting out those strings.

You will need to adjust the height of the two posts to raise the action. The top plate pivots against them. You are fortunate the trem is not missing anything. My Bronco has a similar ground wire, though mine is not currently working. I don't have my neck shimmed currently and it lines up correctly.

My bronco came with a modified Strat Vibrato arm that works well. I have an original Bronco Vibrato arm , but the Strat one is a little taller. You could substitute a Mustang Vibrato arm for the Bronco since they are pretty similar. I saw Puisheen on Youtube use a Jaguar arm even.

Mustang arm on top and Modified Strat arm on bottom.
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Thanks, I will loosen the strings and try adjusting the height as you described. EDIT: I took it all apart again, and the bridge is working well. I used your advice along with a YouTube vid to figure it out. The edges of the posts are likely worn a bit from use and will not hold up the plate under heavy dive bombs. That's fine, I barely of ever use a trem (they look so cool, though).

I'll need to try my jag's trem bar then. The one that came with the aftermarket bridge on my warmoth mustang is too big. Good to know standard mustang arm should fit.

While I was researching pickguard options, I came across a vintage set that included the thin metal plate that is supposed fit beneath the pickguard above bridge and make contact with the posts. That's apparently where they're supposed to ground, but it's rare to find them on guitars that have been modded. Learn something new everyday!
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Re: bronco restore

Post by dots »

As mentioned, in the above edit, I disassembled the bridge again and followed some instructions on setup and what to look for. I don't think my playing style will put the worn post edges at risk of getting too problematic. Not worried.

Restrung and intonated which is when I discovered the clipped two bridge saddles create their own challenge. Don't know why that was done, but I pretty much had to put them as far back as they would go and get pinched by the screw and raise the bridge slightly to intonate 11 - 49 strings. It works and sounds punchy acoustically, so again, not worried.

The neck has definitely had some work done on it as I found more glue drops (worn in and not that noticeable). There's a chip in the rosewood on the side of the first fret that was lacquered at some point. Again, the stories this thing could tell...

I'll sit on the refin project for a while and just get used to playing it. The most I'd do is put in a stacked humbucker and do an coil split (I have pots for that). Since I already have this body style in a single config, I don't think the purists have a leg to stand on. 🤘
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Re: bronco restore

Post by Pens »

Oh, that grey shit on the body is glue?? I just always assumed it was like a primer layer before the blue went on.

Those knobs look so much better on it.
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Re: bronco restore

Post by taylornutt »

dots wrote: Sat Apr 01, 2023 4:16 pm As mentioned, in the above edit, I disassembled the bridge again and followed some instructions on setup and what to look for. I don't think my playing style will put the worn post edges at risk of getting too problematic. Not worried.

Restrung and intonated which is when I discovered the clipped two bridge saddles create their own challenge. Don't know why that was done, but I pretty much had to put them as far back as they would go and get pinched by the screw and raise the bridge slightly to intonate 11 - 49 strings. It works and sounds punchy acoustically, so again, not worried.
I saw your comment about the clipped saddles. I looked through my parts bin because I have a bunch of Bronco Saddles, even some brand new ones. Unfortunately, all the ones I have are saddles for A or B strings. You need the D and G saddles which are the tallest.

My question is did Fender manufacture different saddles with different heights or do they simply take the same saddles and bend them up for D and G strings or bend them down for the E strings? I am starting to wonder if they if you could take A or B saddle (medium height) and bend it up to make D or G saddles. The heights are not that different.


Bronco Saddle pics
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Did you watch the Puisheen video he did on the Bronco recently? It's invaluable in terms of knowledge.

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Re: bronco restore

Post by dots »

yep, that's the vid i used to gain background on how the plate and posts work together. since i readjusted saturday, the guitar stays in tune near perfectly, and the action is spot on.

the neck is a little chunkier than on my mustang and hh jag which are flatter and more to my preference, but not so much as to make it uncomfortable. it's actually quite a smooth, playable guitar, and i can see why it's clearly been someone's main instrument over the years.

i even did some recording with it on a newer track we're working on. while i'm not bowled over by the current pickup's tone, it is a distinctively snappy sound that can clean up and scream up depending on your amp and gain settings.

quick question: the string tree has no plastic spacer, so it sits really low to the headstock. is that normal?
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Re: bronco restore

Post by taylornutt »

dots wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2023 4:28 pm yep, that's the vid i used to gain background on how the plate and posts work together. since i readjusted saturday, the guitar stays in tune near perfectly, and the action is spot on.

the neck is a little chunkier than on my mustang and hh jag which are flatter and more to my preference, but not so much as to make it uncomfortable. it's actually quite a smooth, playable guitar, and i can see why it's clearly been someone's main instrument over the years.

i even did some recording with it on a newer track we're working on. while i'm not bowled over by the current pickup's tone, it is a distinctively snappy sound that can clean up and scream up depending on your amp and gain settings.

quick question: the string tree has no plastic spacer, so it sits really low to the headstock. is that normal?
That's interesting that your neck is on the chunkier side. My Mustang has a 1969 neck and its chunkier than my 1971 Bronco neck. I wonder if they increased the thickness with the later models.

Bronco pickups have a reputation for being snappy/louder so it sounds like you have a stock pickup. My pickup measures 5.67ohms, but its way louder than either one of my Mustang pickups.

I will have to confirm when I get home about the string tree spacer. Here is a photo of mine from the top and it does not appear to have a spacer.
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Re: bronco restore

Post by dots »

yes, it is definitely a thicker neck than even my AVRI jag, but again, not terrible or anywhere near unplayable. it just takes a little bit of adjustment since it turns out i prefer the flatter necks like on the hh jag.

i hadn't done any research on the string tree at all, so if you're saying yours is the same, it's just how they go, i guess. i'm sure there was a reason it was designed that way.

since it may be a while before i make a decision on going through a refin, i'm going to dress this thing up with a black pickguard and an aftermarket comp stripe (black). the guard will offer a nice contrast to the pearloid on my mustang, and the stripe will cover a fair amount of the paint that was rubbed off before and after i got it.

i'll take photos of the pickup and pots when i go through all that to see if we can compare. if they're legit stock, i'll leave them be. i'd be surprised if they are, but it wouldn't be the first time.
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Re: bronco restore

Post by dots »

Pens wrote: Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:09 pm Oh, that grey shit on the body is glue?? I just always assumed it was like a primer layer before the blue went on.

Those knobs look so much better on it.

just saw this post... no, you were correct -- the gray is primer. the masking tape was definitely shellacked/glued on extra and turned out to be a royal PITA to remove... i still didn't get all of it off. whatever joker did that REALLY wanted you to get his joke about a bronco horse on a bronco guitar. lol

what happened was i used some clear tape to mask the primer when i was taking the masking tape off. the solvent i used was safe for the paint, but not the primer... nor the paint that was in contact with the clear tape. the glue in that reacted with the solvent and ate the paint. one of the rare cases where i will say EFF YOU, SCIENCE.

still can't/won't complain about this guitar -- i hecken love it.
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Re: bronco restore

Post by MattK »

most likely because it fckn rules
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Re: bronco restore

Post by taylornutt »

I was wrong about the string tree. My Bronco has the spacer just like my two Mustangs.

Image

I saw a 1972 Bronco on Reverb that was black with pearloid pickguard and white competition stripes. Not sure about the guard but the stripes looked awesome.

http://reverb.com/item/59821862-fender ... 1972-black
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