Staining a top

[deadedith]

Martin - as luck would have it, my #2 build - redwood top, eir b+s, turned out really nice. People who see it love it. But now I am having difficulty finding redwood. So I was hoping to stain spruce to achieve much the same look.
I actually have been practicing staining on scrap spruce, and can totally get the rich redwood color I'm aiming for; of course, the coverage is not perfect because topwood is generally not that completely uniform, at least not enough for staining. So I was hoping for someone to step forth with something like: "Do this, then this, then stain and it is all good."
(I do see that LMI has some redwood)

[enalnitram]

I will be interested to hear what others say, but I don't think this is a good idea. Spruce will darken over time. It will wind up looking like no other guitar you've seen before, like stained spruce and not redwood. and then years from now, the wood will darken yielding an end result that will be hard to predict. leaving the spruce alone...what's wrong with that? no headaches, no possibility of accidently flinging dye drips on your other work, etc.

If you're convinced you want to do it, something you might want to try on test pieces is transtint dye. try it, diluted with distilled water, and wipe it on with a cloth. it is easier to make a more uniform shade when the dye is diluted, and you can also "creep" up on the shade you desire.

to make a redwood looking shade, you may have to mix colors, though, and the very small containers are about $18 each.

[Ben-Had]

I've read on this Forum that staining a top is not a good idea.
Why not? With proper prep, and a pre-conditioner, why would staining not work?
Has anyone tried it with success? I'd love to hear how you went about it.
Thanks


Oh yeah almost forgot - can white fiber binding be stained?

You can get about any color you want. This is an LP I'm building for someone and the color it will be (once the clear coats go on it it'll change slightly. But you can achieve just about any color you want. Just get the colors, mix record ratios to duplicate and test spray to see what you get. I wasn't quite sure how this color combo was going to come out at first but it is an interesting color. You can do the same thing with an acoustic.

Tim B

[johnnparchem]

As you are mixing colors, keep carefull records of what you have done. I ran out of a mixed color on one of my violins, and spent for ever duplicating it for a late stage fixup.