Staining alder in same manner as flame maple?

[r1c0rtez]

Hey all, so i only have one previous experience with staining, which was a flame maple veneer on an old guitar project that....didnt turn out as planned so the body was never finished. However i did have a great learning experience using ColorTone alinine dyes i purchased from StewMac guitar supplies.

Question is, in the guitar project, i stained the whole body a tinted black first...then block sanded the high points down so that the "valleys" of the grain kept the tinted black. Then a second stage of tint started with the colors used (vintage amber,orange burst). Would this method also be applicable to the poplar base that comes with the crack kit? or is the poplar grain not as effective in showcasing its grain as flame maple?

 

[caffeinator]

First of all, well done on the guitar body - that looks amazing!

As for doing something similar on the bases that come with a Bottlehead kit, I have done something similar in the past.  I wanted to get a more interesting finish than a plain stain, so I layered black (think it was actually Ebony) Minwax stain over a lighter color - something in a medium brown.  I then sanded with a belt sander to expose the brown (I was going for more of a distressed look).

The grain doesn't rise so much on the Bottlehead bases to have a lot of depth to leave light and dark areas, but I bet a light touch could succeed in achieving a similar effect to your guitar body.  I got it to a slight degree on my Seduction base, but, of course, using a belt sander, it had more to do with where and how hard I pressed and how long I dwelt on a post.  I also noted that it took a lot of coats of the Ebony stain to get a lot of contrast going, and then I ended up overstaining and finishing with some Watco Oil stain/finish.

I do like the end product, though  I plan to try to get something of a blue denim effect on a different project, and  I will likely use the same process again to get a match between my new stereo cabinet (grey-brown) and the bases, using the grey-brown under, then ebony over and sand to give some nice contrast but still be color-keyed.

I'll post a phot when I'm back home if there's interest.

 

[Dnorris]

Caffeinator, please post pics as it is always good to see results! As for the original question - from my woodworking experience the popler/alder bases will not generally have the grain or contrast that a flame maple will have. The grain variations and permeability will be less, but that doesn't mean it won't be attractive. Try the technique on an inside surface and see if you like it first. Given the beauty of your guitar finish I suspect it will still produce a nice attractive finish.

 

[r1c0rtez]

thanks for the insight Caffeinator and Dnorris, looks like it'll have to be a trial and error thing so ill have to test the inside of the box with the same dyes and see what comes out. Hopefully i can push the whole project out this week while my job gave us the week off. i almost have no excuse not too haha