laminating is a cool idea, i've tried it with basswood, with a 1/2 inch stripe of purple heart up the center of the neck, neck isn't done yet so i don't know it it will hold but if it does wooohooo what a light neck!!!, but something along that line.. i highly recomend purple heart, with the properties of both maple and ebony it's a great neck wood and fingerboard wood too! it's also one of the cheapest woods strong enough for necks.
When looking for maple, you want to find a nice flat peice that doesn't have very much of a bow or bend in any direction, and also try to look out for knots, as this will be a center point for bending and change of grain direction ( a pain in the ass when sanding or planing) i know this is hard if the board is really ruff cut, but most knots should be fairly visible, idealy you want a flat completely straight grained board that's about 1inch by 3inches and about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long, please, someone correct me if i'm wrong here, but that just seems to make sense to me.. any extra wood you need for the width of the head stock can be taken from a different part of the board, like where the neck is skinniest, then glued to each side.