Oh YES. Maybe my favorite Chibson yet.
I love the flame maple on my instruments that have it, but like roasted maple necks, it feels like such a fad that will pass.
Perfect response.
It reminds me of the old apocryphal story about Gandhi:
“What Do You Think of Western Civilization?” “I Think It Would Be a Good Idea” – Quote Investigator
Can’t hear the name Gandhi without thinking of Fight Club
Agree on the flame maple veneers, think roasted maple necks will stay as they address an issue besides looks.
As long as this so-called trend for flamed maple gets me more purple basses (which tend to mostly come on trans finishes) so be it.
All my flamed maple are from 2006-2008, hahahaha.
Yeah, a friend has a $450-500 Ibanez from 2014 or so with a flamed top, too. I’m not really sure how much of a fad it really is or if manufactures just figured out a cheap way to give people a look that was typically on higher end guitars. Is there a definition for how long fads last or don’t last?
Spalting and burls seem to be the “in thing” on higher end guitars lately, too.
Thats exactly how much my Custom Carvin neck thru guitar in Koa with Maple neck cost in 1991. After taxes, the exact price was $666 and some change like .30 or .40 cents.
My dad used to work at a high end TV and AUDIO store when I was an early teenager, and I worked there for a summer job at one point, cuz we knew the owners really well.
When BOSE came out with those mint like 3" square speakers, my dad used to do something similar on one of the big projection TV’s with a home audio system.
Then people wold listen to the speakers, and he would pull back the grill and show them the little Bose they were listening to, and they were always shocked.
My dad being the Audiophile he is, and me growing up around it, couldn’t ever really stand the sound of those tiny BOSE speakers or BOSE in general, but most people were in Shock and Awe by the tiny speakers and huge sound, that they went for them.
I will admit, if space is an issue, they might be a good option, but they just don’t have a true resonant sound about them, they sound so mechanical and dry I couldn’t handle them.
My youngest daughter (just turned 18 at the beginning of this month) is planning to move to Portugal with her GF this summer.
She has not told her mom yet, but its happening.
Hey @John_E, She is also going to NYC on April 1st thru the 8th with her GF.
any recommendations for her, other then BE SAFE? Like things to not miss if its your first time in NYC as an adult (but not 21)?
IDK about that. I actually do not like how dark they turn out, cuz I love as light a maple as you can get, or like birds eye maple for furniture and instruments, but I understand the benefit of Roasted Maple necks, being that they remove all the moisture from the wood, and allow it to take on its true form that would otherwise take years to dry out, if ever, and THEN cut the neck so that it is pretty much going to not move a whole lot, and climate shouldn’t affect it as much. In theory at least it sounds like a selling point that will stick, and if they can make a few hundred extra bucks per neck just by putting it win an oven first, umm… yeah, why not.
unless in 10-20 years from now, all the roasted maple necks start to break and or become something that weakens the instrument over time (that we probably won’t exactly know for a while), yeah, they sound like they will have life to them.
I don’t especially like them. for instance, the SBMM Natural Ash Ray34 before roasted maple necks, with the white maple neck looked so clean and awesome to me.
Now with the super dark maple necks on them, they just seem to pull out the worst of the natural ASH body, and kind of blow it for me.
I would probably only buy used Ray34 with no roasted maple neck from this point forward if I were to get one again.
But I probably won’t be buying a whole lot of instruments for the next 5 to 10 years other then the couple I am going to put together and flip in the next few months before sentancing.
Roasted maple is also lighter and therefore less neck divey
Who was it who didn’t like Led Zeppelin?
As a Punk Rocker most of my life, I have been conditioned to mostly Hate Led Zeppelin.
But I think others here also don’t care for them.
I get my exercise walking from one end to the other.
raises hand 
That cover is a big improvement over Plant though.