jakebeamish Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 I'm really keen to make my Squier VM Precision TB fretless. My problem is though, that it has a square neck pocket - rather than a 'rounded' one like J's and P's do. I have tried looking online for companies like Warmoth selling custom tele necks, and I just can't find anything. Defretting the current neck isn't really my favourite solution, as the neck it has at the minute is probably the worst thing about the bass. Apart from giving up on the whole plan and just getting a P or J, does anybody have any ideas? tl;dr What happens when you try to put a rounded neck into a square heeled bass? Thanks basschat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbyrne Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 (edited) If you put a rounded heel into a square socket, it has the effect of pushing all the fret back a feww mm, or put another way, lengthens the scale. Now, if there is plenty of adjustment left in your bridges to come forward to re-make the scale length to the original, this may not matter, but if not, you will never get the bass to intonate properly. How about buying a second fretless neck & getting the end machined square? G. Edited April 5, 2014 by geoffbyrne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roland Rock Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 Maybe Ive got the wrong end of the stick, but wouldn't a rounded heel just fit into a squared socket as normal, but with gaps in the corners? The scratchplate would cover those gaps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakebeamish Posted April 5, 2014 Author Share Posted April 5, 2014 AFAIK there will just be gaps, but I didn't know if that would be such a problem. Also, the screw holes should line up, hopefully, so I won't have to pilot more into the neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roland Rock Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 I can't imagine that gaps in the corners will be an issue. Purists may claim that the fact that the heel does not have 100% tight contact with the socket will be detrimental to tone, but as an owner of a late '70s P with neck pocket gaps which sounds gorgeous, I don't think you will have much to worry about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SubsonicSimpleton Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 Square pocket tele basses have the same number of frets, it is just the shape after the 20th fret that differs - assuming the width of the neck pocket is identical(check this first), you could place the two necks back to back, and use your existing neck as a template to mark out how much material you need to remove from the P/J neck by lining up the fret tangs with an engineers square. Using the large images from the fender website, and the guide grid in GIMP indicates that the amount of material you would have to remove from the end of a round heeled neck would be very small - approx 2mm would be my estimate based on the available images which I couldn't scale exactly to each other. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/hOOxX27.jpg[/IMG] The most important thing to remember is to make sure that the neck you get has truss rod access at the headstock, and the width of the heel needs to be the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbyrne Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 [quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1396721603' post='2416799'] Maybe Ive got the wrong end of the stick, but wouldn't a rounded heel just fit into a squared socket as normal, but with gaps in the corners? The scratchplate would cover those gaps. [/quote] I've had this experience with Stratocaster/Telecaster necks. You can put a Tele neck (flat end) on a Strat body & it will intonate, but putting a rounded Strat neck on a Tele body doesn't work for the above reason. I'm assuming this would work the same. G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roland Rock Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 [quote name='geoffbyrne' timestamp='1396738334' post='2416988'] I've had this experience with Stratocaster/Telecaster necks. You can put a Tele neck (flat end) on a Strat body & it will intonate, but putting a rounded Strat neck on a Tele body doesn't work for the above reason. I'm assuming this would work the same. G. [/quote] Looking at the picture above, I know what you mean now. I had thought that 'rounded' referred to just corners, rather than the entire heel end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essexbasscat Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 The current neck is the worst bit of the instrument ? is it possible to use the neck at all ? If yes, take the frets out of the current neck, buy a long sanding block of the radius of your choice and level the board out. May save a whole load of pain compared to going the other route ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodrox Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 I am interesred in doing this the other way, I want to put a tele style neck in a vm p bass, was hoping it might be just a matter of dropping one in, now I see that p neck is rounded and tele is square, I notice on billy sheehans wife bass the bridge looks like it has been moved back, wonder if that is the reason, I am sure squier do a p that hasthe tele style neck, wonder if it woulde be a straight swap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom skool Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 I'm thinking of doing the same. I thought i would trim the neck off square and then put a shim in if needed for intonation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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