We picked up a piece of roasted flamed maple, big enough to do at least one multi-laminate neck, fretboard and headstock. Roasting the maple in an autoclave at high pressure and in a near vacuum changes the cellular structure of the wood, making it nearly impervious to moisture, but without changing its fundamental strength or tonal properties.

The board is flat-sawn, so we’ll be ripping it down into smaller pieces that will be flipped on their edge and laminated together to make a strong and stable neck. The figure goes right through the board, and should be stunning. Roasted maple varies in colour from a golden honey tone all the way to a deep chocolate brown. The colour goes all the way through the wood.

The “flame sandwich”. Originally planned as the neck for Prototype 3, i opted to use it on this guitar instead. Five laminates… three flamed roasted maple, with two figured mahogany stringers.

The neck blank glued up.

Mmm… flamey.

dB1 Javelin. The first “production” Decibel Guitar. Figured mahogany body, 5-piece roasted curly maple + figured mahogany multi-laminate neck. Roasted curly maple fretboard.

The roasted maple goes a bit more brown when finish is applied. I may apply a little bit of brown stain to the body to bring the tones more in line with each other.

The fretboard is going to look pretty stunning.

Laid out.