Fretless necks.

[OldWhatsHisFace]

Hey, I was wondering about fretless necks. How do they sound different to fretted?
Also, is a fretless neck just a normal neck without fretwire, or is it different in some way?

Cause I want a left handed Gibson Thunderbird neck, but fretless. And believe it or not they're hard to come by. So I figured I could get the neck and replace the fingerboard? Or just get a fretless neck with a paddle headstock and make it look like a Thunderbird. What would be the best, safest or easiest option?

Thanks guys.

 

[line6man]

Two minutes on YouTube should give you a clear idea of the general tonal differences. Note that they are quite extreme.

A high quality fretless neck will not be the same as a fretted neck with no frets. The nut should be lower, because the action is different. Additionally, if you have an unlined neck, the side dots will be drilled in different locations.

Getting a new neck is usually easier than replacing a fingerboard.

 

[lz4005]

Gibson Thunderbirds are neck-through construction.
The necks are not removable like Fender bolt ons. You have to steam apart the glue joints that hold the sides of the body on to replace a Thunderbird neck.
The raised bit in the center of a Thunderbird body is part of the neck.

If you want to end up with just a left handed fretless Thunderbird neck here's what you do: Get a fretted, left handed Thunderbird, remove the electronics, strings and hardware, steam or saw the sides of the body off, then either remove the frets and fill in the slots or steam off the fretboard and install a new one. Then you'd have a left handed Thunderbird neck. What you'd do with it after that I have no idea.