Tinting an Oil for an Amber/Honey Finish on Maple Neck

TheVelvetBulldozer

Junior Member
Messages
41
Dearest Warmothites,

I will show the "Wudtone-finished-yet-pale maple neck" that I promised I'd send sometime ago. If you don't remember, don't blame you, I barely do myself. Point is, I'd like to get some tips on how to properly finish this thing. It's not going to be with Wudtone (this post has really nothing to do with Wudtone), so I'm all ears to what you guys have in mind!

Here is how the neck looks like now with some Wudtone stain and 1 gloss (top) coat before saying "ok something's wrong here", so the 1st coat isn't level (Needs around 3 gloss coats to be level). Attachments are below.
I contacted Wudtone, but no response so far, and I contacted Musikraft (where the neck is from) and they said they put no primers or seal coats, or anything like that on it, and they said maybe the grain/pores were tight and didn't accept the stain to well. Very strange, that's for sure.

But now-- moving forward. I talked to a local guitar finishing veteran and this is what I got out of it. First thing I'm going to do, no matter what, is smooth out the wood with synthetic steel wool and put on 2 coats of Shellac De-Waxed Seal-Coat. My questions for this first step: Should I sand the Wudtone Stain completely off? The experienced guitar builder said it would be very hard and time-consuming to sand the old stain from between the frets... He said after putting the Shellac I could put any finish I want, because it acts as a barrier and a "canvas" accepting any finish.

Secondly, the finish itself, which includes the Amber/Honey tint and a smooth gloss finish (typical vintage fender neck stuff).
You can see some "samples" in the attachment below. Now I could either do it the typical nitrocellulose lacquer way (spray on top of the Shellac coats), which I believe @Deep Purple in Rock is doing as he explained in this post: https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=33922.0

OR

I could try with oils and tinting it to get beautiful colour and nice finish, plus it's much easier and less toxic than the lacquer spray way.
This user on Strat-Talk got some perfect results (exactly what I'm looking for) using Tried and True Varnish Oil and a variety of Transtints: https://www.strat-talk.com/threads/tinted-oil-finish-on-maple-rosewood-neck.341203/
Now how do I do this? He was last active in 2016, and I doubt I can find these two products earlier.

In sum, what I'm really asking: How do you tint an oil to get a "Honey Amber" (as shown in the first two pics of the Strat-talk post) colour on a maple neck? All my other concerns are in bold. Which tints work with which oils? I sadly need a few options since I don't know which I can find locally (or online for a good price...).


Thank you!
I seriously owe you guys! At least a coffee each! :yourock:
 
Ok these pictures are hard to send it seems... I'll send a google drive link. Hopefully the pesky thing will open for you all!
I put 3 pictures of the maple neck currently, and pictures I found online that ballpark the colour I'm going for.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nSu84rMZfVmW22PkUEan1bvcalmFyQKf?usp=sharing
 
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