Looking to stain air dried alder.

[leftybill]

Hey all. I am back again with another project, although less ambitious than my previous project. 
I picked up a one piece air-dried alder body that I would like to stain a bit and then go the Tru-Oil route.  From what I have read, alder is prone to blotching especially at the end grain.  Some have suggested a pre stain conditioner and then a gel stain to minimize the blotching effect.  Also, in my search I found that someone applied a series of light to darker stain applications with sanding in between. 
Are there any good stain brands readily available at standard home centers for this? 
Is pine the best wood to practice on since I do not have scraps of alder?
How much darker will just the Tru-Oil make the body?
thanks
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[Paul-less]

I did my alder body with waterbased dye, and tru oil on top of that.

Yes. The endgrain is a whore when it comes to dying. I just rubbed it down the ends with a damp rag (water) and called it a day. I wanted my strat to be an work horse, and it looks pretty good. Doing what I did, the endgrain was still darker.

BUT...

With the tru-oil, it DID NOT make the guitar much darker. It make it the color of the WET dye, so it was actually pretty easy for me to guess the finished color of the guitar.