For anyone who has ever stained alder...

[Nicholasdaniel]

Anyone have experience with staining an alder body?
any tips for using a mini-wax oil-based stain.
I'm really liking the piece I got and want to show of some of its grain.
Also anyone have pics of a body they have stained before that was alder?

 

[kdownes]

I just finished an alder J-bass build:

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=10818.0

The topcoat didn't come out completely awesome, but I really liked what the stain did with the grain on this body.  This is a water-based stain from General Finishes.  The only problem I had with it was that it raised the grain a bit, even after I wet the surface and sanded a few times to prep it.  But if you're using an oil-based stain you won't have that problem.

 

[Keyser Soze]

I've seen plenty of pictures of stained alder that looked fine.

Sadly I've never had that experience.

Alder can be problematic.  It blotches somewhat randomly and the end grain tends to draw up substantially more stain than other aspects.  Gel stains or pre-stains can minimize this problem.

 

[Paul-less]

I received an alder warmoth strat body about 4 months ago, and this is what I did.

I used [urlhttp://www.woodcraft.com/Catalog/ProductPage.aspx?prodid=2460&ss=5dada4d2-7e6d-4eb9-a72c-d10e8bb5588d]water-based wood dye.[/url]

I first raised the grain with a VERY weak solution of the dye, weak to the point that very little coloration was added.
I lightly sanded it back.
I used a heavy solution of the dye, applying it with a cotton rag. I didn't soak at wipe off, simply used enough to evenly cover.
I sanded the body a little heavier. This leaves dye in some parts of the grain, but not in others.
I used a lighter solution than the heavy one. I think this gives a little more variation in the grain. I love the way alder looks.
Once dried, I went nuts with Tru-Oil.

The finished product is much like Silent_K's J-bass, but the dark grain is darker.

The guitar has a woody tone, so I use for clean songs and anything fingerpicked.

 

[jackthehack]

Here's an alder body that I used MinWax stains to do (just the back of the body; lamp top was flame maple and I shot it with Fender Neck Amber to match the neck.

This is a bit unusual; way I got this effect on the graining was to stain it first with MinWax Golden Pecan; then applied MinWax Jacobean stain on top of that after the Pecan dried: