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Post subject: Bronco bass
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 4:29 pm
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did fender ever build an american Brono bass guitar? I found one i think...what would be the value range of something like that? I dont have the serial number but its a 1981

ok turns out it is a long scale american bullet bass....is that worth anything? very rare? did they make one american?


Last edited by killermeatloaf on Thu Jan 10, 2013 8:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 6:00 am
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American Bronco ? I don't think so. Low budget American bass where Mustang and Musicmaster.

Bronco are Squier series IMO ..


If you can write to Brotherdave, he know Bass very well


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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 6:28 am
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Yep!

Image


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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 11:14 pm
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YES there were American Bullets starting in 1981. They were a budget model introduced to compete with cheap import knockoffs. There were two versions. One had a Telecaster type headstock and another had the fuller peghead headstock.


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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 7:55 am
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The Bullets featured a smaller P-Bass body shape.

The Bullet Deluxe came with the Tele Bass headstock.



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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 6:06 pm
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And the Bullets had the Mustang Bass pickups, until they moved to Indonesia or somewhere like that.


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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 6:33 pm
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The Indonesian-made Bullets have different pickups? Which year their production started?


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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 7:32 am
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Yes they did and they had a peghead headstock instead of the slim first generation P-Bass headstock.

Photos follow of a late Japanese made Bullet Bass (Fuji Gen) with Japanese serial E700499 sporting stock full size P-Bass pickups instead of Mustang pickups and modern peghead which makes it a very late Japanese model. Apparently these changes were made the final year of Japanese production.

Image

Image

After moving out of Japan I think they were made in Korea for a while. The Indonesian Bullets are modern ones.

The Fender logo Bullet Basses are all USA and should all have the slimmer first generation P-Bass headstock shape with Mustang Bass pickups. When the Bullet Bass moved to Japan the brand logo changed to Squier which made them the first Squier basses, but they were pretty much the same as the USA ones. After being made in Japan at FujiGen for a few years the headstock and pickups changed and then FMIC moved production to Korea.

I believe it is the modern Bullets that are made in Indonesia.


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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 4:19 pm
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Here is a USA Bullet 34 from my collection that I purchased October 4th, 2012 for $560.00. According to Vintage Guitar Magazine 2013 Price Guide in excellent condition they are valued a $575-$725.

Image

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Last edited by affprod on Sun Feb 17, 2013 12:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 8:04 am
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affprod wrote:
Here is a USA Bullet 34 from my collection that I purchased October 4th, 2012 for $560.00. According to Vintage Guitar Magazine 2013 Price Guide in excellent condition they are valued a $575-$725.

Image



What caliber bullet is that? :shock:
Art


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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 12:28 pm
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That would be a 1982 34 caliber with a hard casing.

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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 1:50 pm
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Now the photo shows up :lol:

Just hat that grey circle and white rectangle before.

Art


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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 7:30 pm
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I think when the Fender Bullet came out it replaced the Musicmaster and Mustang! It came with either a long scale or short scale neck depending on how you ordered it.

That one pictured is a real nice one.


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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 7:14 pm
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Brother Dave, you are exactly correct. In fact a short scale burst just sold on eBay, not to me however. :( The short scale is not one you see every day and this one appeared to be very nice. The full scale is much more common. I have actually been looking for another short scale since I sold my last one in 2011. That might have been an error in hindsight.

You are also correct that it replaced the Mustang and the Musicmaster as Fender's "student" bass. Surprisingly, the short scale was only made briefly. One would have thought that replacing two short scales with one, the short scale would have had priority, but this was not the case. (I think they first called them the B30 and B34 but I do not have my references handy, the full scale was quickly renamed the Deluxe.)

I believe there was a third Bullet model built at the same time. I find brief references to it but not much beyond that.

The line moved to Japan after just one production year is the USA spanning 82-83. I believe the short scale B30 was discontinued at that time and never made the move, but again, I am away from my materials at the moment.

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Post subject: Re: Bronco bass
Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 7:25 pm
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PS. Art1 and all. Sorry about the image issue. I added a new bass to my collection and inserted it in sequence by date of manufacture. That seems to have changed the URLs of the others in the photo album. What a mess. Lesson learned, but not sure how to get around it.

Should have them all here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/11808618 ... psrc=pwrd1

The DR4 was the culprit. Looks better in person. Quite a nice playing piece as well. But the Heartfield experiment is another subject.

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