Defret or just replace the neck?

[Stromrider]

Well, i have a Squire Affinity P bass which I want to make a fretless out of. I'm handy enough with tools but i'm wondering if I should just save myself the trouble and buy one of the Rondo fretless necks and just put that on?

This one for instance? http://www.rondomusic.com/product858.html

The neck pocket is 2.5", but i wonder if that neck will just bolt onto the Squire body?

What would you guys do?

[baalroo]

If you're even vaguely handy with that kind of stuff, just yank the frets... it's pretty cheap (wood filler, epoxy, & sandpaper) and if you don't like the results then look into buyin a replacement neck.

[J.D.B.]

If yer Squier P is a 34" scaler then yes, you can install that neck.
Josh

[Stromrider]

Alright, that was way easier than i thought it would be. I now have a fretless neck

Now, fill the lines with wood putty and sand?

[Darkstrike]

Yes, or thin strips of wood. The wood is more work, but looks neater.

[joeyl]

it seems to me that everybody recommends putty or wood filler to fill in the fret slots. I personally would not because you need something hard in there to prevent too much bow in the neck. Like wood veneer or plastic strips

[baalroo]

I've never read the "defretting sticky" in this forum, but I found THIS really helpful when I defretted my ibanez (i was SUPER happy with the results):

defret blog

[Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by joeyl

it seems to me that everybody recommends putty or wood filler to fill in the fret slots. I personally would not because you need something hard in there to prevent too much bow in the neck. Like wood veneer or plastic strips

I agree. Cutting multiple slots across wood is the WAY you make it ready to bend. Leaving them in a neck is asking for trouble unless they're filled with something at least as dense as the original rosewood - which putty is not. I defretted a neck (10+ hours of work as a first-time project, including gluing back in every single rosewood chip that came out, which IMO is the only way to do it right) and used .020 thick styrene strips as fillers. They were easy to glue in, trimmed nicely with a razor blade, and then a light sanding assured that they assumed the contour of the fretborard.