Re-finishing a plywood guitar with stain?

GordonBennett

I've got a Japanese strat copy from the 70's. It was my first electric guitar - bought in the mid/late nineties. Never having done any work on a guitar before I decided it would be a nice project. So far I've replaced all the hardware, new pickguard (didn't fit so had to file it), new pickups, pots, switch, electrics. It's been fun.

The thing is back in the day I had a mate paint some flames on it, and a Vishnu with her tits out. I want to get rid of that now as it looks crap, so I'll be sanding and re-finishing it. 

Ideally I'd stain it as I prefer the look and also heard it's harder to screw up a stain than it is to re-paint a solid colour?

The issue is the body appears to be made of plywood - please see the pic below from inside the bridge cavity. Has anyone any experience of staining a plywood guitar? If so what are your recommendations? 

https://i.ibb.co/FDnvZGf/plywood.jpg

GordonBennett

I think I have a plan.

1) Sand the body down
2) Apply some of this stuff: https://www.yandles.co.uk/chestnut-cellulose-sanding-sealer/p3647
3) Apply stain

Hopefully the wood doesn't look like a dogs dinner once I've sanded.

Happy days. I'll make a guitar out of this piece of crap if it kills me.

Funkfingers

Alternatively, make a feature of the laminate layers. Stain them different colours - like the Gibson Zoot Suit SG.

WezV

Stain won't stick to sanding sealer.   You need raw wood to stain, but how well that works depends on the quality of the ply.