Stain Questions TB-4 Bass

Hello,

I am currently working on my first build ever, the TB-4 bass with a basswood body. After doing a lot of research, I decided to go with Wudtone's Azure Lagoon stain. Yesterday I applied my first coat of stain to the body, which was a deep color coat. I have attached a couple pictures after I was done (I apologize for the sub-par pictures, my camera and lighting leave a lot to be desired, so please bear with me). It seems to have gone pretty well, the coat is mostly even, but I will lightly sand back with high grade steel wool before starting on another coat. My question though, is you can see on the left side of the body that there is a stripe that did not absorb as much stain as the rest of the body. Does this seem like a sanding issue, or is it possible that strip of wood won't absorb stain as well as the rest of the body? If it is a sanding issue, is it safe to sand back the deep color coat, or should just that area be sanded and apply more of the deep base coat?

Thank you all in advance for any help!

This is pretty common with the multi piece bodies, there is often some variation as to how well they absorb the stain. Usually it becomes less apparent as the build progresses. Another application of stain will make it less noticable, but its just one of those things working with natural materials.

Also, the final stain colour is affected by the colour of the wood, so if there's a piece of wood with a darker section in it, then the stain will be darker in that area. If you don't like it, then it's what solid paint colours were made for.

But, as Sonic says, just add a few more stain coats and see how it goes.

It's been quite a while since I've updated this, but I decided to get rid of the original stain. The green color looked fine, but ultimately not what I was going for, so I sanded off what I had. The stain I used was a wipe-on stain from Wudtone, and as you can see in the pictures, I wasn't able to get all of the original stain off, especially on the top near the neck pocket. The stain seems to be too deep in the grain.

My goal is to now use automotive paint instead. I have the primer and the color coat for the paint, but my question is preparing the wood for the paint. Should I apply a sanding sealer before I start using the primer? The Wudtone stain specifically could not have sealer on the body, and I don't have much experience with it, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

A sealer will help stop the paint from sinking into the body so much, so you'll require less paint layers to get a think enough layer to sand flat and polish. It's always a top up between paying for sealer, and using a few extra coats of paint. Sealer is generally just a thinned-down lacquer of some kind.

Hi Simon,

Thanks for all your helpful answers! Would the type of wood affect how much paint will sink in without the sealer? This is the first time I've worked with basswood, and so far it seems like a fairly dense wood that wouldn't absorb a lot of stain, I'm curious if paint would work the same way. I have very limited workspace, so I think painting will be a rare occasion for me vs. using stain. I'm leaning towards skipping the sealer since it will probably just gather dust after this project

It will still sink in a bit. There aren't any open pores but it's still porous and some bits will absorb more than others. Not a lot. but enough to leave an uneven surface. With a solid colour, you may be better off starting with a can of primer, or primer/filler, which will probably be a bit thicker and more likely to fill the surface of the wood.

Basswood is a bitch to dye with my builds when staining or dying them I only sand down to 120grit it leaves a bit more for the dye to grab on to when I go over it with a clear I use a couple of extra coats so when I'm blocking the body back there's plenty to cover the deeper sanding marks, it's pretty much a must do sand to fine and you'll get a washed out look to it

Thanks again everyone for the feedback! Phrozin, I'm right there with you, so far this basswood has been the biggest pain to work with. I appreciate the info about not sanding too fine, a washed out look with the coloring I've chosen won't look good at all. My goal is to sand down either tonight or tomorrow and start adding layers of primer. I'll update with some more pictures once I've had a chance to work on it!

It's only been a few days or so since I last worked on this...

Yesterday I got inspiration to try a burst instead of the painting route I pivoted to. This is my first attempt at a burst, so I wanted to go fairly simple. The original reason I went with the Wudtone stain was because of how great the grain looked, so I wanted to go with stain again, but applied conditioner first this time to get an even coating. I'm very happy with how it's turned out so far. It all definitely needs another coat, but overall, not bad!

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That's looking very pretty

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Looking good! The effect imo is much nicer and more even then the green.

Thank you both for the kind words!

Rabbit, I completely agree, this works so much better and more cohesively than the green ever did. As frustrated as I originally was that I had to sand off the hard work I put into it, I'm happy for it now as it looks so much better.

That's only one coat in, so I may lightly sand back and apply another coat or two just to get good coverage.

Another staining issue popped up while finishing this kit. I originally stained and finished the neck plus the neck heel, it helped for a snug fit. Now that I've changed the body color entirely, the original neck stain no longer works, so I want to sand that back off and retry. My concern is that if I try to sand off the stain from the neck heel, it may not sit correctly in the neck pocket. Is there a better way to do this than to sand it? I'm hoping to avoid removing material if I can.

Thanks in advance!

I do a lot of scraping with a Stanley knife blade. Might be easier to control. After all you only need to remove finish that's visible.

Thanks JimC, scraping worked perfectly!

The bass is just about wrapped up now, just wiring left to go. With each build my goal is to try at least one new thing. This time I tried tung oil as the finish for the first time. It was super easy to work with and dried quickly. Once I get the wiring done I'll let it sit to properly cure.

I've always liked the Firebird truss rod cover, so I decided to make something similar for this build. Before it's done I plan to add a signature of some kind to the truss rod cover, and a logo on the pickguard.

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Sorry for the less than ideal pictures, I'll post better ones once I can get it finished and into the photo studio at work.

Looking good dood!

Yeah, nice... Much better than. the green, IMO.

Much better than the green.