Staining a swamp ash body yellow

[Redleg37]

Greetings,

I have a swamp ash P bass V body on the way and I'd like to stain it so that the grain lines are brown and the surface is yellow. I think these are the correct steps:

Stain brown with leather dye
sand back brown
stain yellow with leather dye
Repeat this as necessary to get a color I like

Use a clear grain filler

Add a clear finish of some kind that plays well with the grain filler I used.


Will this work? If I'm okay with the wood feeling more natural could I skip the grain filler to keep the uneven surface? Does tru-oil play well with leather dye finishes? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks for any help.

-Red

 

[bagman67]

Another possibility is to stain the body yellow, seal it, then fill the grain with tinted grain filler.  Using brown dye and sanding back before applying yellow dye will give more pronounced results, though. 

I have had great luck with General Finishes water-based dye stains, and have topcoated them with Tru-oil.

Specifically, I did a similar thing to what you are describing by first coating an ash body with black india ink, sanded back, and then dying with a color, and then filled the grain with black-tinted timbermate.  Thumbs up!

I also did a rag-applied burst on the ash backside of a body (did the front as well, but that was figured maple so no grain fill) then sealed with a wash coat of shellac, then filled with tinted Timbermate.  Also thumbs up!

I can't reach the photos from my job, which is where I'm posting from, but I can post them tonight.