just been reading your clearing process thought id chime in so others can take on board, with certain wood (specialy hollow body ply bass mapel ext) if you want a deeper colour some tight grain woods dont except dye's and stains very well they end up looking washed out, the problem is sanding the wood to fine if your wanting to get that real deep look dont sand the body any finer than 180grit i dont go any finer than 120grit what it does is leaves the pours open enough to let the dye soak, down side is clearing over a 120grit surface i lay 6 to 8 coats of clear leaving it 2 days then wet sanding with 800grit w&d. then another 6 coats then the usual polishing, hollow bodys are terrible for leaving a half baked look to them i have done this the last 5 builds i have done and im in the middle of a hollow body thats looking real nice

I know you have done your clearing but if you have put a bit of dye in the clear make sure you go over it with only straight clear other wise when polishing can open you up to a streaky looking clear coat as you will never sand it equaly, i do the same thing if im not quite happy with the colour

not trying to hijack your thread i dont post very much and figured you may have had a similar problem with the stain and clear