Staining a guitar

LuttiS

I've got an idea in my head. Might not be a great one but it's there!

I've got a guitar thats not got a particularly great body look but i want to almost accent that.

I want to stain it a dark (possibly darker) walnutty type colour.. the body is made of several pieces and i want to accent these pieces.. so i was going to put teeny tiny grooves (and possibly more depending on look) at the joins and i wanted the stain to run onto these and create even darker lines. 

Would stain do that?

This is the kind of colour i want (i'm aware this has grain and stuff, just talking about the darkness of the brown)


And how would i prepare the wood before staining it?

I have some time off so this may actually get done! Colour me excited!

Thanks muchly!

WezV

you need to make sure the wood is free from all existing finish, glue smears and other stuff before staining.  

Some woods take stains better than others so test on a hidden area first.  Stains can absorb unevenly at different point - end grain soaksup more.   you can slow this down by soaking the end grain first ( soak with white spirit for a spirit based stain, water for a waterbased stain etc..).  or you can just live with the unevenness if you want it a bit more rustic

I would start with a traditional spirit wood stain and maybe try something like fiebings dark brown leather oil if you need it really dark.   rinse and repeat as needed.

As for adding grooves, yes, they will gather more stain and end up darker