This turned out to be a bit more of a journey than originally planned, but it worked out beautifully 
I have two MIA Fender P's that are my main gigging basses, but I also had a 50's P Classic because it sounded great and I've always had more basses than I need (eight basses at one time is my personal record, currently have five).
Anyway, I've never been one to hesitate making changes to the basses I have. It's part of the fun for me. I also have a preference for rosewood fingerboards over maple, so when someone advertised to trade a rosewood Fender neck for maple, that was change number one to the 50's P. A custom pickup was the next change soon after.
Then I started jonesing for a fretless bass, and converted the 50's Classic. It was done extremely well by a professional. However, as most would know, there's a reason you see more fretless Jazzes than P's. The bridge pickup in the Jazz is where the mwah lives. Converting the P was a mistake, but I didn't regret having a beautiful fretless neck that I could use elsewhere in the future.
So I started searching for a Jazz specifically to swap necks with. Once I saw the binding and blocks on the 70's Jazz, I had to have it. Extra bonus is that the 70's bridge pickup is a little closer to the bridge, which I assumed would work well for fretless mwah tone. I was lucky to quickly find a brand new one within driving distance. I picked it up just this past Tuesday.
Long story short, both basses are killer. I played the P with the Jazz neck for 3-hours last night at rehearsal, and I was in my glory. I will definitely be using it live. The 70's Jazz body with the fretless neck also exceeded my expectations (although I can't imagine ever having the confidence to play it live. Tons of basement fun though).
I know some will think, "why didn't you just keep your P-bass the way it was way back, and simply buy a Jazz fretless in the first place?" Well, hindsight is 20/20 and if I did that, I wouldn't have ended up with what I have now .. and I'm over-the-moon with what I have now.
I have two MIA Fender P's that are my main gigging basses, but I also had a 50's P Classic because it sounded great and I've always had more basses than I need (eight basses at one time is my personal record, currently have five).
Anyway, I've never been one to hesitate making changes to the basses I have. It's part of the fun for me. I also have a preference for rosewood fingerboards over maple, so when someone advertised to trade a rosewood Fender neck for maple, that was change number one to the 50's P. A custom pickup was the next change soon after.
Then I started jonesing for a fretless bass, and converted the 50's Classic. It was done extremely well by a professional. However, as most would know, there's a reason you see more fretless Jazzes than P's. The bridge pickup in the Jazz is where the mwah lives. Converting the P was a mistake, but I didn't regret having a beautiful fretless neck that I could use elsewhere in the future.
So I started searching for a Jazz specifically to swap necks with. Once I saw the binding and blocks on the 70's Jazz, I had to have it. Extra bonus is that the 70's bridge pickup is a little closer to the bridge, which I assumed would work well for fretless mwah tone. I was lucky to quickly find a brand new one within driving distance. I picked it up just this past Tuesday.
Long story short, both basses are killer. I played the P with the Jazz neck for 3-hours last night at rehearsal, and I was in my glory. I will definitely be using it live. The 70's Jazz body with the fretless neck also exceeded my expectations (although I can't imagine ever having the confidence to play it live. Tons of basement fun though).
I know some will think, "why didn't you just keep your P-bass the way it was way back, and simply buy a Jazz fretless in the first place?" Well, hindsight is 20/20 and if I did that, I wouldn't have ended up with what I have now .. and I'm over-the-moon with what I have now.
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