I put some TO on late yesterday after about the 6th coat of stain (I used the sum total of about 25ml of stain). It took a few stain coats to get it to even out, but eventually I got there. It certainly wasn't the easiest thing I've ever tried to stain lol.
The TO layer count is currently 2 - I noted that the stain really doesn't seem to bleed in all that far (I also tried it on an off cut of the headstock and it didn't go far on the maple either), so I figured I'll build up a bit of TO before I start taking to it with sandpaper again.

I've wound up so far with a very deep brown looking body, which is cool. I was hoping it'd be a little more red, but that clearly wasn't going to happen with this timber.

I've been tossing up what I do with the neck though. I was thinking of using poly as a finish to seal it up then sand it back a bit to take the shine out of it and make it easier to play. The only concern I've got with that is that the maple will be a pretty major contrast compared to the body. I do want to leave the headstock for just clear coat so black decals work.

The choices I see are:
- Suck it up and just hit it with the poly and see maple like a normal bass.
- Stain it red, live dangerously and give my wife more excuses to hate this bass.
- Throw some of that Dingotone Black stump I found in the shed on the neck, finish it with poly and hope like hell it doesn't bleed through to the front of the headstock.