Guidance with neck swaps

[Cullen G]

I often see custom necks for jb ir pb which are very nice.

Does this mean all body neck pockets, and necks of the same vein will "fit" with just minor shimming?

I believe I have read the distance between bridges and the start of the neck is differently spaced on the different scale basses? Thus preventing you from putting a 32" neck on a bass that was originally a 34" bass?

Last question is, is there any reason you can't change a fretted bass to a fretless one with a simple neck change?

Please ... what am I assuming incorrectly? Thank you.

 

[J Posega]

You're pretty much spot on. Fender/Squier bodies and necks (and aftermarket parts made to retrofit Fender/Squier) should be interchangeable, taking into consideration slight manufacturing tolerances. You may need to sand a little finish off the inside of the neck pocket of a body or off the heel of a neck, or shim the base of the neck pocket to get a good break angle. That is, as long as the scale length is the same and number of frets to the end of the neck pocket is the same (frets that overhang the neck pocket don't matter).

There are even conversion necks that are designed with fewer frets so you can convert a 34" bass to a 32" bass without needing to move the bridge. If you just try to put any 32" scale neck that isn't a conversion neck on any 34" scale body, you'll probably need to move the bridge closer to the neck to compensate for the missing 2" of length.

The unscrewing of a fretted neck and bolting on of a fretless is the easy part. Dialing in the string action for optimal playability and tone to your liking may take more effort.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

If a neck is built to Fender spec for the neck heel and is 34” scale length and has 20 frets it will nominally fit any Fender spec body. Because of production variations and a blue jillion years of making Fender instruments any individual neck may require fitting to a specific body.

Unless a neck is listed as a conversion neck, for instance @BTL makes a 32” scale neck that bolts on a stock Fender body, you will possibly have to move the bridge.