Our original plan was to do Prototype 3 as a Cutlass, but then we came up with the AMX design and it worked better with the stunning piece of figured mahogany we had available. Those black lines are left over from the Cutlass template trace.

Proto 3 AMX parts roughed out. Figured mahogany body, 5-piece laminate neck (9 if you include the veneers), figured katalox fretboard.

Neck laminates from the outside in: figured mahogany, birdseye maple, figured katalox core.

Figured mahogany headstock will be grafted on at the scarf joint.

Here it is laid out. This will be the first AMX!

This Javelin was the second 1-piece body cut from the slab of figured mahogany. It has a light coat of polymerized tung oil on it to seal it, but also to see how the grain would pop. WOW!

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.

L-R: dB1 Javelin, dB2 AMX, dB3 AMX

dB1 Javelin body freshly popped out of the jig.

Pickup selector and master volume control well out of the way. There will be a flush-mounted momentary kill switch button situated in between the two recesses.

The control cavity and recess for the cover have been routed.

The neck has been cut down from 27" scale to 25.5" as per Misha’s request. The truss rod channel just needs to be made a little longer, which will be done with a steady hand and a sharp chisel.

There’s still a bit of PVA glue residue from where the bodies had to be attached to the jig for the CNC. This will all come off in sanding. Amazingly, the two mahogany stripes on the neck are lighter in colour than the three roasted curly maple laminates!

The neck-to-body joint is tight enough that there’s sufficient friction to allow the body’s weight to be held up by just neck press-fitting the neck into the pocket. No glue or fastneners are holding the two together at this point.

Some dye tests, sanded back and oiled. L-R Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Van Dyke Brown, Black.

L-R: No dye, Burnt Sienna, Van Dyke Brown, Black on a piece of the curly mahogany from the body offcuts.

The back of the same offcut with no dye and one coat of polymerized tung oil sealer. I’m leaning towards just leaving it au naturel.

Bolted up to test fit, with the kill switch in place.

Kill switch detail. I installed it with the optional rubber O-ring under the bezel, which i think i’ll remove for the final installation. You can see the machine marks that still need to be sanded out. This will happen after i’ve done the carving on the back.

Body beauty shot.

A close-up of the neck fastening system that will be used on all Decibel bolt-on instruments. These are 1/4″-20 T-nuts embedded in the neck.

Interior shot of the control cavity showing the kill switch installed on an angle, flush with the curved top.

Neck heel with the bolts deeply recessed. They’re drilled out to 1/2″ thickness on the neck heel and 1/2″ thickness on the neck. Because the neck is being held by the threads on the bolts and the steel inserts, there’s no concern over threads tearing out of the wood. The neck is being held on with more compression force than you’d likely be able to get with screws in wood alone.

Beauty shot.

The Golden Hour.

The fretboard needs some fine sanding to bring back the figure. Wavy grain = crazy figure. The 16" to 20" compound radius and the fret slots were cut on CNC. The slots end short of the edges to give a "pseudo-bound" look. The solid edges also likely make the fretboard a bit stiffer.

Rough contours carved on the back. The ridge on the neck heel will blend into the asymmetrical soft V on the upper part of the neck.

Sanding will smooth things out and blend some of the edges and curves together in a more organic way.

The front of the guitar is meant to look clean and precise, like a surgical instrument. The back is more organic, with lines and organic curves suggesting structure under a fluid skin.

The first shot of dye rubbed into the figured mahogany body. Sort of a "mocha espresso" brown. Left to dry overnight.

The back is as wild as the front. More even distribution of figure, but not as extreme as the front.

Mocha sanded back and a coat of amber applied, sanded back again and then a thin coat of shellac sealer. The final colour will be something i’m likely going to describe as “Mocha Gold”.

The depth and figure will only get deeper and more complex as i apply layers of tung oil and then a beeswax polish.

This is what a roasted curly maple fretboard looks like with a thin coat of sealer on it. Zowie!

And this is the back of the neck. Maple-mahogany-maple-mahogany-maple.

Unbelievable figure on the body.

Unbelievable flame on the neck.

Note that the fret slots do not extend all the way to the edges of the fretboard! This board was radiused (16" to 20" compound radius) and slotted on a CNC for hyper-accurate fret placement. Stopping the fret slots short of the edges of the board gives a "bound" look without binding, and makes the board stiffer overall, since it has 3 mm "rails" down each side. Normally a slotted board wants to curl up, since you’re essentially cutting kerfs into the piece of wood. The slots themselves are also radiused to match the board, so there’s no waste of material there either.

After grinding the ends of the tangs off.

Custom-made string retainer block made of 1/2" solid brass. It has four tapped holes in the other side that mate up to the holes on the bridge. Instead of the bridge being screwed to the body with wood screws, it’s bolted through to this retainer block. The resonance and projection is incredible. This also gives an easy string grounding point for guitars that have GraphTech saddles on them, which are non-conductive.

Distressed Aftermath 7 set from Bare Knuckle Pickups in the UK.

Near-completion teaser shot.

Completed! (Almost… just a bit more fretwork to do after the neck has settled with tension on it for a couple of weeks.) Shot on location at Exotic Woods Inc. http://www.exotic-woods.com

AMX body style (likely to be Prototype 3) rough cut from the slab of figured mahogany. It almost looks like Koa, with a golden honey hue to it. This isn’t even properly surfaced or carved. Don’t mind those marker lines… they’re going as soon as this is run through the planer and drum sander.

This Javelin was the second 1-piece body cut from the slab of figured mahogany. This will be saved for a future build.

Figured South American mahogany. This will be made into two one-piece bodies.

A Javelin and a Cutlass will be cut from this blank.

A big stick of flamed “roasted” maple. Roasting it in an autoclave apparently makes it very stable and impervious to moisture.

The board is flatsawn, but we’ll be ripping it down to make a multi-laminate neck blank. We should be able to get a fretboard and a headstock out of this board as well.

The gorgeous flame goes all the way through, so the quartersawn edges will look pretty amazing, too!