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I have some Braz RW with sapwood along the jointing edge and would like to dye the sapwood to more closely match the heartwood if it can be done without too much difficulty. Has anyone had success doing that? If so, any words of wisdom you would be willing to share? Thanks.

I have done it several times. It works fine....especially if there is a dark line at the transition that will resemble landscape figure once it is dyed.
I use water soluble aniline. The three main colors for this application are walnut, brown mahogany, and red mahogany.
On this one, I used black dye, simply because I liked the way it looked with the dark striping in the wood. The sapwood is along the center joint, and tapers to about 3/4" wide at the butt.
If you use a light-colored backstrip like this one, be sure to seal it with shellac or lacquer before applying the stain.

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John

Thanks, John. I agree with Filippo, that is really impressive. How do you apply the dye? Do you pad it on or spray? Do you tape off the border or just seal the heartwood before applying the dye? I really appreciate the info.

Yeah, very nicely done...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I dont know what to say.....when I read the question in the beginning , I was like: NOOOOO why would you do this??? on the other hand side, sap is perhaps already a bit out of fashion, and among classic players had never been accepted.

this looks really good. I can still see the sap without problems, but a player never could! did you also stain the sap in the inside?

Probably I will never do this, I am a sap lover, but your work looks nice!!!


cheers, alex

That really, really does look good, but I'm with Alex with regards to sap wood. I've brought a few sets just because I like the contrast of the sap wood and thought it would make an interesting pattern. Didn't realize that the classical guys don't particularly like sap wood; may have to rethink a build I was about to start. Anyway, good staining job!