Staining a kit with a veneer - Help!

Hi all,

I’m looking at getting a ib1 kit very soon and am tossing up between the salted maple or flamed veneer options.

As these both have a veneer, which I’ve read in the manual is less than 1mm thick I am wondering if I can achieve a finish using red and black water based stain. Kind of like the photos below. I am planning to use colortone stain and truoil over the top for a nice gloss finish.

Attachment 23398

Attachment 23399

I’d love to know if either the spalted or flamed works best and if anyone has any recommendations on methods or products that will help achieve a similar look.

Thanks :)

Get the flame maple veneer, I ordered an ib-1 kit with a spalted maple veneer and it had lots of really large pores that was a pain in the neck to fill. I have no experience with staining so I can't help you in that aspect.

Thanks mate, did you have to sand the veneer at all? Would be interested to hear how that went.

Yes I did, just be careful. I ended up deciding to paint over it anyway with a metallic blue.

Have a look at this thread. Skip to the last page to see the result, then you can have a look at how it was done.

http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=7223

I've stained all mine and the last one is currently in the finishing stages of tru oil so yes it can be done with no issues because i am not an expert and have managed it.....all my stains apart from one are water based

Staining is a POC. A very light sanding is required is remove the raised grains that the water based stain will cause to rise up. Plenty of coats of Tru Oil, polishing and it will look a treat. Check out my TLQ-1 in the photo gallery. It was my first staining effort so not the greatest but it will give you some idea. There are plenty of posts here to show some ways to get the result you want. Good luck.