Squier Bronco is a good bass to start with, any of the line though. Nice thing about a Bronco is it’s cheap enough you don’t feel guilty if you make a mistake
1 Like
Yes but in the end I decided to keep glossy and satin as is. There are pros and cons on both finish and one who own both can appreciate the fast and smooth satin at the cost of extra thumb pressure or the light and precise glossy gripping finish at the cost of tackiness.
1 Like
I haven’t directly on a playable bass with poly finish, but have on my project bass that I’m putting a Tru-Oil finish on to keep it satiny. I’ve read of people who have used the same process on glossy poly necks, though. Basically just use some 0000 steel wool or the synthetic alternative (synthetic is better as you won’t get the super fine steel dust all up in your pickups and knobs and such). You should still tape those off as best you can, though. Clean the neck really good to get rid of any gunk like sweat, dust, etc. Then very lightly use even strokes up and down the length of the neck until it gets about how you want it to feel. You don’t want to press too hard and leave uneven scratches.
I just took off my shorty neck that’s poly’d so maybe I’ll give it a try on that as a test.
1 Like
It’s really easy to do. Take a Green 3M pad to the back of the neck, and the gloss comes off very quickly so don’t over do it. It becomes like satin
Or use a glove on the fretting hand and it won’t matter
1 Like
GENTLY! Or start with the maroon one which is less abrasive. That’s the one I use and works great.
2 Likes
I’ve used 0000 steel wool. Supposedly reversible if you wanted to buff it out later.
1 Like
That looks awesome. I really like the black hardware. Would you mind sharing what you used?
1 Like
Thanks for all the advice. I’m definitely going to give it a go. Does anyone have any pickup/electrics suggestions?
1 Like
Thanks!!
the plates, screws and retainer were generic Amazon or reverb. I did lie and reused the pickguard and just black paint penned over the white line on edges.
I did also buff off the glossy neck.
3 Likes
That’s inspired me. Mine is already black so I’m wondering if I could do a black on black version in honour of the pursuit special that that mad max drives in the first film……
1 Like
Well, my new bridge came in a day earlier than expected. Hipshot KickAss. So I’ve got the new neck, tuner bushings, and bridge installed. Still have to do a good setup, but here it is. Before and after pics. This was converting back from 30” short scale to 34” scale.
9 Likes
I used 2000 grit sand paper to take the shine off my CV jazz. You could get away with much coarser than that but keep the pressure very low. All it needs is a couple of gentle passes, wipe it clean and check it then maybe a couple more passes to taste.
1 Like
Man, that’s a great looking bass.
Thanks! I’ve done about everything to it except strip off the paint.
1 Like
The bass looks awesome. Love the new neck. How does it sound with the new bridge? I was thinking of getting one for my Squier CV Jazz as I understand you can switch the saddles around to make it left handed. Then I saw some people on Reddit complaining that it didn’t sound great. What’s been your experience?
2 Likes
Same here! Now that I see the before and after new neck photos, the bass looks more “balanced” visually. The body seemed a little elongated with the short scale neck. Looking forward to hearing a demo. 
1 Like
I didn’t notice a difference in sound of the HipShot KickAss 4 bridge vs the Gotoh 201B-4 bridge I had on there. It sounds just fine to me.
That said, it’s certainly more customizable than the Gotoh as it comes with 3 heights of brass saddle inserts with the low and medium heights installed on the E/A and D/G strings, respectively, and the taller in a bag for more height adjustment if needed than what the regular height screws allow. You can even order stainless steel inserts from HipShot for a “brighter tone” if you want, and they even give you dimensions to make your own inserts out of whatever material you want. You can also slightly adjust them side to side in the saddle for different string spacing. I did appreciate that they also included 2 shorter springs and intonation screws to allow more adjustment as I definitely needed that. Since it’s all modular you can, of course, put any piece in any position you choose. Which is probably what those people meant by saying you can swap to make left handed.
Now, is it worth the money that that customization? Maybe, depending on your wants/needs. I didn’t need it. If the mounting screw holes to trailing edge had been a few mm more on the Guyker GB406, I would have just gotten it for less than half the price. I probably would have had to cut or replace the springs and screws for the E/A strings, but that’s cheap and easy. In my use case, it was chosen over other bridges purely based on the leading to trailing edge and mounting screw holes to trailing edge dimensions as I wanted to hide old mounting holes in the body. I should have taken a pic to show how ridiculous it was how many there are under there. There’s somewhere between 17 and 23 or so.
1 Like
Well, you’ve got some pretty decent DIY kits Down Under (except for the Rick style).