The other brand I’ve used is “Osmo” particularly when I’ve wanted a clear or light shade to a top, rather than a strong colour stain.  

The Osmo “raw” product protects the original colour of the wood, and stops and subsequent oil coats from changing that original colour.  Great on lighter woods that you want to keep light/white and not go yellow when oiled.

I switched to the Crimson guitar stains.  They’ve got a wide range of colours (which you can mix and/or overlay to create bursts, etc), they’re easy to apply and the results generally match the colour in the bottle!

They did some how-to videos on their YT channel too.

The stains also work well with their finishing oils, so you can build up an almost-gloss finish with the oil, over the colour stain.

found products that were more predictable

@tv101 what did you change to? The main reason I went with this is as I don’t need spray equipment. Have to say the results I had previously were excellent too, that was on to bass wood but indeed would be nicer to “know” the outcome to a certain degree upfront. 

but I like it more than the colour it was supposed to be!!

Then that's a good result this time!!

@tv101 so far the inconsistency is only down to the wood prep and colour. I sanded too finely which hasn’t helped the dye take. The fresh scrap test I did is a a lovely blue but my guitar is more of a green. That might be a problem for some but I like it more than the colour it was supposed to be!! Much of the change I think comes from it not being a very light wood to start with, possibly!!

Anyway, plan now is the deep colour coats, base colour coats, silver highlights, glossy top coat mixed with grain filler to get a smoother finish. The last two I’ll do on the test piece first though!!

I acquired that as a carcass, so I just added the hardware and the finishing.  Plays lovely.

👍

This one is quite a subtle effect because it was my first time and I erred on the side of subtlety rather than bling!

@tv101 I do like this guitar because of the slightly off level grain, the colour and how subtle you have done everything, oh and the trick with the scratch plate. It’s a beaut! 👍

Only pictures I have for reference are these but really video or multiple angles are needed to truly see what effect is achieved, look at the highlights section:   https://www.wudtone

@Tej - I used to use those products, but moved away from them some years ago after some "inconsistent" results.  It can work well, but it can also not work well at all!

Really depends on what sort of effect you want to achieve, but I've had fair success using the Crimson coloured grain filler products;

https://www.crimsonguitars.com/products/grain-enhancing-filler

It's really easy to use - just rub on/in, leave to dry and then rub off the excess, leaving the grain filled with little flecks of colour.  Then apply finish of choice over the top.  I used gold filler on a mahogany body, which I then stained red.

This one is quite a subtle effect because it was my first time and I erred on the side of subtlety rather than bling!