Can I Sand Away Stain That Was Rubbed Into Maple?

[BruWallbillich]

I'd like to refinish a guitar body I built a few years ago. It has a maple top and mahogany back. I applied ColorTone stain directly to the maple and sprayed it many times with their spray can Guitar Lacquer. It's dinged up and I wore through the nitrocellulose laquer in a spot. Is it possible to sand away the stain or is it going to be impossible to remove because I rubbed it directly into the wood when I first finished it? I ask because I'm considering a natural finish.

If I can't sand through the stain, maybe I could do a hand rubbed sunburst since the base color is already yellow. If I strip away the lacquer and try to apply stain around the edges will it bleed into the yellow that's already there?

I finished a previous solid mahogany guitar with many coats of wipe on poly. I didn't get as high of a gloss but it looks good and has held up well. Could I used wipe on poly over ColorTone stain?

Here is a picture of my guitar:

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[Quarter]

You can sand most of it off, but without getting very aggressive, you will still have some color in the curl of the grain.

The good news is that because it is an amber color it may end up blending well and looking great.

[Ledzendrix1128]

The same thing happened to me... quilt maple top, mahogany back... I was able to sand almost all of the color out of the maple (due to the fact that it is not a porous wood) and any color tint that was left was not noticable after my first coat of stain when I went for round two! but like quarter said.... dont be too aggressive with the sanding because you don't want to change the shape of your guitar too drastically. Goodluck!