Anyone ever stained a maple or Roasted maple neck ? any tips ?

[KOABUILD]

Anyone ever stained a maple or Roasted maple neck ? any tips ?  ........advice pro or con ......any examples ?

How bout mixing stain in Tru Oil then applying ? ....seem feasible ?  ....or better to apply stain straight to maple neck itself ?

I'm considering a darker special walnut type color if that helps.

 

[stratamania]

If it is a dye you would need to apply it to the maple directly. Dye tends to be more transparent allowing the grain to show.

If it is a stain or pigment you could mix it with tru-oil. As an example artists oil paint has a carrier often of linseed oil and tru-oil also contains linseed oil.

For a neck of the two a dye would be the better option I think.

In both cases, you need to consider compatibility in order to avoid a problem. Oh and test on scrap wood first.

 

[Cagey]

Maple doesn't like to take dye or stain - the results are often blotchy - so you have to seal it first. It's actually easier to shoot (or otherwise apply) a tinted clear if you don't like the color of the raw maple. It'll come out much more evenly and with less work.

Note: pigments are not the same as dyes/stains and are generally for solid (opaque) colors, or maybe something translucent like you see with Mary Kaye finishes.

 

[KOABUILD]

Thank you guys for the info, I had heard that Maple dosnt take to staining very well; I got intrigued when I saw the Walla Walla Guitar Company guitars, it looks like they stain blotchy or not on Maple, which is pretty rustic and appealing to me. https://wallawallaguitars.com/gallery-2/

 

[bassetman]

They are nice folks there. Call and ask if you have questions. They do quite good work.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

I did a couple of basses with stained maple necks. This is my personal SSB. Unfortunatly I only have a picture of the front but you can get an idea from the headstock. I used a mix of ebony and walnut stain and diluted it to get the desired tint/intensity, then finished with TruOil.

 

[rgand]

Thank you guys for the info, I had heard that Maple dosnt take to staining very well; I got intrigued when I saw the Walla Walla Guitar Company guitars, it looks like they stain blotchy or not on Maple, which is pretty rustic and appealing to me. https://wallawallaguitars.com/gallery-2/

This one of theirs sure speaks well of staining maple. It makes me think of trying it one of these days.

 

[stratamania]

Earlier mention was made of pigments being different to stains. Stains contain pigment. Stains are not dyes.

 

[Cagey]

That's probably true in some cases. For instance, "deck stain" is sometimes opaque, or very nearly so. But, we're not comparing apples to apples with dye vs. pigment vs. stain. The coloring agents are either dye or pigment. Dye is a colored solution, while pigments are colored particles (often sold in a liquid suspension). You can make stain with either one.

Stain is actually closer to paint in that it's usually a pre-mixed finish designed to cover/protect, which neither dye or pigment are, but that would confuse many consumers. Stain often has penetrating qualities, while paint is just a covering. Stain is often transparent or translucent, which paint rarely is.

Lotta weasel words there, like "sometimes", "often", "usually" and "rarely", but as they say, there's more than one way to skin a cat, which is why there are so many different finishing products out there :laughing7:

 

[KOABUILD]

Yep them weasel words are the real deal alright...lol, .....as in..... "your results may vary"... :laughing7:

So I said heck with it and went with the direct on, I already knew that it would be blotchy due to the heavy burns from the Roasted process that were evident when I first saw and purchased this neck, which probably had alot to do with the $197 price tag, but Im a sucker for that old school thinking... that Roasted vintage modern construction must somehow get me closer to those old vintage tones.....blah blah blah

As expected it is blotchy but I do like the rustic look and hardcore effect, it also probably had alot to do with my sanding of the neck prior to staining; to better fit my grip, which now feels very meaty but comfortable, more of an SRV offset than a Boatneck which is what I originally wanted....more meat near the thumb a little less under the fingers,I put a slight roll on the fretboard and its very comfortable, feels awesome I cant wait to play on it.

I could have tried a prestain conditioner but I wasnt as concerned about uniformity as I was character.....but overall Im pretty happy with the results though if I did this in the future I might purchase a neck that didnt have the Roasted burns..... or maybe I would deliberately for effect, anyway things to consider on future builds.....

I feel I could have done a better job on the steel insert install if I would have had a 17/64" bit at the time; as drilling the insert holes out to 1/4" left too much thread diameter and the Roasted Maple likes to crack/split or sliver any chance it can being that its so dry, even waxing the wood and threads did little to help... and the Dry Roasted shavings will leave a couple of nasty slivers in your fingers if you get careless or anxious and wipe away the excess with your hands....
Still the inserts funtion great and it feels very obvious when you snug them just how much the neck and body really are one mass.

 

[rgand]

Lotta weasel words there, like "sometimes", "often", "usually" and "rarely", but as they say, there's more than one way to skin a cat, which is why there are so many different finishing products out there :laughing7:

"Weasel words." This might be a term I can often use sometimes, maybe.

 

[rob91bob]

I did a black dye on a regular maple neck, it had a little bit of figure in it and came out pretty good. I put about 5 coats of satin nitro on top of the dye.



Also did a blue dye on a Floyd Rose Discovery neck, wanted a faded denim look.



It is tough to not get streaks in the dye with maple. Dilute it well and many coats.

Rob

 

[stratamania]

Here is an article which explains the differences between stains and dyes well.

https://www.woodcraft.com/blog_entries/stain-or-dye

There is a technical difference between them. But just the same as often people "weasel" their words and say a split humbucker is tapped when it is actually split and lack a correct definition for what a tapped pickup actually is, does not mean they are the same thing.

Which basically means we have to know what we are talking about with the correct terms or to recognize whether the terms are being used inaccurately.

 

[jond4]

I used Keda Dye on a flame maple neck for this LP project I did a year ago. No problem at all.