Hey dave - thanks for the compliment. Still not perfect, but I'm learning!

For this build, like my Ash LP, I filled the grain with Timbermate. Ebony in this case, Walnut for the LP. The darker the Timbermate the better the pop you will get. I used Ebony in this case to go with the blue, and Walnut to suit the more earthy tones of the tobacco burst on the LP. The effect was the same, and I really like the look.

Now here is the caveat. In both cases, the grain was still evident after my ministrations. The reason for this (i believe) is that in the process of rubbing on several passes of dye (be it to get a strong blue colour, or to do my bursting), the Timbermate was getting wet and re-activating. Each dye pass was slowly drawing the timbermate back out of the grain. I havent had a problem previously, but usually this involved only a single dye pass.

The upshot is that I caused myself problems with the lacquer because in the end the grain wasn't perfectly filled. It took a lot of work to get the grain filled with lacquer, and even then there are some pin holes evident. Just something to be mindful of!!

I wonder if anyone out their in PBG land has an answer to this issue? How can we grainfill for stain without it being re-activated and dragged out by the dye? Of course the easy answer is to tint the lacquer rather than rubbing the dye, but that's impossible without the correct equipment. Is there a simple answer I'm not seeing? Anyone got any suggestions?

Far too many words, but I hope it helps.

cheers,
Gav.