Staining inside?

[aaron]

On my first guitar I decided to put in a side sound hole which I have really enjoyed sound-wise. However it also gives more of a view of the inside of the guitar for anyone who picks it up to gaze upon my work. Is there any fault if I wanted to do a coat of stain to the inside of my second one just for aesthetics sake? Would this have a negative impact on sound quality and do any pros do this? And best practices?

For reference my second kit will be the Martin Rosewood dreadnought kit.

Thanks!

[johnnparchem]

There are some good luthiers that use shellac inside the guitar. I would not expect any acoustical effects. I would be scared to use stain as it would be hard to get clean look.

In many instances some sort of finish on the other side of a piece of wood will act to somewhat equalize moisture absorption between the sides. I've never seen anything published that would back up the usefulness of that procedure in guitar building. Anyone have thoughts or experience that would validate or not validate the 'finish both sides' theory??

-tommy

[tippie53]

there are some good and bad luthiers that do this.
I understand you want it to look nice , but adding a finish can make future repairs difficult. The best effect is to do a good job inside the guitar , make it all nice and clean. If you rub in some shellac or spray , do the back first and BE SURE TO MASK OFF GLUE AREAS.
You need to maintain a good glue margin. There are many schools of thought on this and I agree that I don't think a small amount will be tonally detrimental. Don't use any penetrating finish just a thin coat.