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I'm looking for tips on choosing colors (or shades of colors) to compliment and work with the natural colors of the wood I'm working with. Specifically in regards to dying the wood.

I was recently working with a guitar body that was quite a light yellow almost green color. I wanted the guitar to be a transparent black/dark brown, but after a couple applications of black dye, the green-y hue was winning. I had some dark orange/brown dye already mixed up so I thought I'd try applying that to warm the color up. I applied some more black on top and ended up with something that was really great and close to what my initial vision was. (I attached a picture for fun)

Obviously experimenting on scrap is the best way, but this was a pre-made body I was dealing with and sometimes there's not a lot of scrap around for endless experiments. And it would be nice to have a good way of getting in the ballpark right from the get go.

A little time studying color theory will give you what you need, I think. You need to pay particular attention to complimentary colors and how to neutralize one with its' compliment. You'll still need to due tests though.

To kill the green you want a very light amount of transparent dye of the color from the opposite side of the color wheel. In theory this would be magenta but there is no substitute for experiments. If the green is a yellowish green, try blue. If it is a blueish green, try red. I have had the best luck in this color-killing process using the brightest shade available. In other words, cherry red rather than vintage red.

Mix the dye extremely dilute, give it a light coat and see if it is better or worse. You want to give it the least treatment that makes it so that the original problem doesn't stick out so much. If you over-do it you can get to an odd candy black effect.