Looking for a finish that doesnt tint my stain

champ222

Hi All

Ive recently bought some of the Crimson stunning stains, and ive done some tests on some Ash (guitar body offcuts). The results look pretty good and some nice colours can be had. 

I then tested some finishes over the stains, and found they all effected the colour of the stain, more than i expected i guess. Ive tried the following:

Truoil
Minwax water based wipe on poly
Clear Acrylic Laquer (i thought this would be the one)
Crimson penetrating oil

They all change the colour of the stain to some degree. Reds and browns etc, arent too bad, as they still look good, though different. Blue for example, loses its edge completely. the light blues just look washed out, and the vivid ones just look darker and get a strange tint.

The oils, i'm not too surprised really, they are designed to enhance the appearance of wood, and as such have a tint to them, but the acrylic lacquer (car clearcoat) did the same sort of thing, which i was not really expecting.

Can anyone suggest a product or a technique that could help? I thought about a "sealer" after the stain and before the finish. But it, seems at least, to be a bit of a mine field in terms of compatibility. I like stained wood finished to look and feel like wood, with some pores etc, so a sealer always seemed like an unnecessary step... but maybe ive been wrong?

Any suggestions guys?

Thanks