Quote Originally Posted by fender3x View Post
My builds are among the slowest here. Life tends to interfere with my guitar building. A common issue I think ;-)

At least the filler flattens and sands well even if the color is a bit off. You still have options. My only successful stain job had a number of issues (mostly my mistakes). I had to work pretty hard not to get streaks or blotches...or more accurately to even them out. I had problems with the fill and problems with the initial clear coat as well. This resulted in some light spots where I ended up adding more of the General Finishes dye stain that I was using. Once I got it as flat as I could I used a gel stain (Craftnique) over everything to even out the color a bit more. That went over original stain, clear filler and some clear coat. Once I had everything as even as possible, then I clear coated again.

I am mentioning this because some stains seem to work well over finish, filler, or clear coat. Usually these are not the dyes, but if you can't get the color the way you want with dye stain you might try something else to even it up. I don't necessarily recommend Craftnique, but there are gel stains, and translucent paints that are designed to go over old finishes and filler that might work well. I think there are folks here who have even drawn in "grain" over filler with a sharpy type pen. Worst case scenario you can still add a veneer "cap."
Thank you. I will keep that in mind. The problem in india is that most of these gel stains are not readily available as in US, UK or Australia. If i have to source i may have to order from websites that ship world wide and also pray that they don't levy any customs duty. Most of stains are not shippable outside continent. I was lucky that I was able to get hold of Timbermate in india.

Right now I have to do the guitar with fountain pen inks and stains available here. Hope I pull this off

Today had some time so tried practicing grain filling on a piece of wood that was porous and had enough rough surface to level. Stained the timbermate but it became a bit runny. So added some more in such a way that it was of right consistency of Chocolate sauce. Made use of the expired Train card to scrap the timbermate after applying on wood. I have let it dry. Will sand and see how it looks and then try to Stain one last time before I go on the guitar.

How do u guys take care of the mess that grain filler creates. I somehow have to find a way to prevent the filler from even accidently touching the veneer despite my masking. It becomes a mess all around too



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