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So I'm getting close to finishing a couple of maple top guitars. Both of these dye manufactories recommend alcohol as a dye mix, I'm curious as to what kind of alcohol? Denatured or ever clear or some other product?

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Trans-tint can work with almost any carrier. Alcohol, shellac, lacquer, even water. I usually use a very thin shellac or straight alcohol. Denatured, as you can’t get real everclear in California.


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When alcohol is specified I assume denatured because of the cost and the fact that it is mostly ethanol (cheapest to produce) with a small amount of denaturant. Other alcohols could work but are usually found as less pure (isopropyl) or more deadly (methanol) so not quite as desireable

I've use plain old denatured alcohol from the hardware stores with Colortone dyes to make stains. I've been shooting a vinyl sealer coat over the stained wood before applying lacquer. I'll also add Colortone dyes to lacquer when I want to tint the final coats. So far its worked great

Hopefully you've kept all the maple cutoffs for practice

Thanks for the info guys and yes I kept all the off cuts and am going to sacrifice some crappy maple to do test runs.

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Homestead Finishing, Mr. Jeff Jewitt's company, makes both the TransTint and Colortone dyes...it appears as though Stewart MacDonald repackages and adjusts the names to be a little more 'guitar friendly' in nature. Not sure why StewMac calls these stains, when they are metal-complex dyes, but they work well for just about everything except urethanes and oils straight from the container.

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Most of the time I dilute Trans Tint in water but when I've used alcohol it's been off the shelf hardware store stuff. These were done with water based Trans Tint, if you're thinking of going that route.

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Julie Moriarty
http://JulimorCreations.com

I prefer water because it dries slow and gives more time to blend.
You have to pre-raise the grain and sand.
Do a water wipe before applying the dye for a more even application.
Use distilled water and don’t get the piece too wet.
Of course, water on wood can be risky.

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