Hi community -
I stained my hollow body pitbull guitar - which I lightly sanded with 1200 before
if you zoom in you can see the stain hasn't take in everywhere! white specs all over
whats my best course of action here? Thanks in Advance!
WM
Sanding with 1200 grit is probably the reason you've got those patches. It's very easy to 'polish' and close the surface of wood using too fine a grit so that the stain isn't absorbed properly.
It's hard to know what to do here. The veneer is very thin but if you've only used 1200 then there's some scope for sanding the surface more with a coarser grit. Maybe P180 or P240. Certainly nothing finer than P240. But you need to be careful otherwise you can sand enough veneer away to reach the glue layer between the veneer and the body ply. That may open up the wood enough to take stain.
Alternatively if you've used a water-based stain, you could try using a spirit-based stain of the same colour. Spirit stains have less surface tension and in my experience, can penetrate the wood slightly better than water-based stains. But I'd first sand with a coarser grit to help things.
Given the fact that a lot of the marks run along flame lines, there is a chance that it's not the P1200 but that the factory used excessive glue to stick the veneer on and in places it's soaked through the wood. If that's happened, then there's not a lot you can do. You can remove glue marks that have been left on the surface with acetone-based products like GoofOff, but if it's come all the way through the wood from below, there's not a lot you can do apart from paint the body a solid colour, or try and return the kit. However it's not going to be easy to differentiate between over sanding and glue issues now the stain is on.
If you manage to stain more of the wood, then I have touched up small patches in the past using coloured Sharpies. You may also find that a permanent red Indian ink sits on the marks better than stain does.
Problems like these are why we encourage people to start a build diary and state their intentions before they do anything. Far easier to provide guidance before it's a bit too late.
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