Brush-on Finishing

[matttheguy]

Alright, unfortunately, I have no pictures of this at the time, so I'll explain it to the best of my abilities.

Alright, so I've got my guitar, and I used a cloth to wipe on the aniline dye (alcohol based, red) onto the mahogany back and sides. That all went swimmingly.

The problems began to arise when I was brushing on the glear gloss varnish. I don't know if this is normal, or if many of you are familiar with brushing on finishes (I see most spray), but for the first coat of the finish, it sort of 'mixed' with the dye, and instead of being completely clear, it had a slightly reddish tint to it. Now, you see, this isn't a problem when you think about it, until it runs down the side. Being a slightly different color than clear, it created a few runs down the side of the guitar that are fairly visible. Clear coating over this doesn't remedy the problem, obviously.

So, that's where I stand. I'm almost ready to start to complete the entire back of the guitar, but I need to fix these runs, first.

Please, suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I've been thinking that if I sand down to the bare wood in the questioned areas only and then wipe on the dye to those areas and start applying clear, it could work. If this is the only plausible suggestion, then I have to question: When I sand through in those areas and then apply the dye in those areas, will it not overlap with other areas and make a seam of color?

I'm pretty desperate, and I'd rather not sand down the entire side of the guitar back to wood.

Hope there's a remedy.