How do you stain electric guitars?

Answer 1

For a "virgin" piece of wood, or body that has never been stained before, first you want to be sure the wood is clear of all irregularities. You can begin this by lightly fine sanding the body with 400grit, then 600grit sandpaper, then use a "tack" cloth to lightly clean off any sawdust and leftover dust, etc. Then you can dip a clean piece of cotton cloth into your stain, and rub it over the body of the guitar, all the time trying to do this as evenly as you can, not letting it be too heavy in some areas and light in other areas. Let set according to instructions, and apply finish and let set according to instructions.

For a piece of wood that you just removed the previous finish from, you want to fine sand the wood and inspect it to be certain that you have removed all of the steel wool bits (if you used steel wool with stripper to remove old finish) that may be imedded into the pores and grain of the wood. If you don't, these tiny pieces of steel wool can eventually rust underneath the finish, and cause tiny little spots, or "freckles". You then want to "tack" the piece of wood, use a piece of clean cotton cloth, dip it into the stain, and spread it as evenly as you can, as mentioned above. Let set according to the instructions on the container of stain, and apply your finish as instructed.