"Steve" wrote in message
...
Andrew Barss wrote:


It's also possible there is a tint in the lacquer on the guitar -- hard
to tell
from the photo.



Tinting one or more coats of lacquer is how this is normally done. No
stain or dye is applied to the wood, since stains and dyes tend to
diminish the lustre of the figure in the wood.

I learned this the hard way. I built a bass guitar body with a really
nicely quilted maple top layer about 1/4" thick. Before finishing, I
applied a Woodburst medium-brown stain to the wood, and lost most of the
lustre of the quilting in the process. You can still see the quilt
figure, but it doesn't capture the light the way it should. I was very
disappointed by the result.


I know a couple of high end luthiers and they dye or stain the wood. Clear
Nitrocellulose lacquer after that. I suspect your experience was more
related to your stain choice, than to the practice of applying stain or dye.

--

-Mike-