Need advice with dye on figured maple cap - getting 'dots' of

[82cabby]

Hi all-

I am working on builds #6 and #7 and this is the first time I have tried the "dark dye, sand it back, light dye" technique. I am working on two guitars, both with figured maple caps. One was dyed black, sanded back and then dyed blue. The other was dyed reddish brown, sanded back and then dyed amber. My method was:

Sand the body to 320

wet it and let it dry to raise the grain

knock down the grain with 320

wet the body

apply the dark stain to the whole body until the color is pretty dense, let it dry

sand back the dark color

wet the body and apply lighter dye

work with both colors until it looks right.

Dye is transtint in water. 25 - 40 drops of dye per 25 ml of water.

I tried everything first on scrap pieces and it worked fine with both colors. The blue and black body came out great.

However, on the reddish brown / amber one I am getting tiny 'dots' of color that appear about 5 minutes after I am done. It seems like there are still tiny reservoirs of the darker dye left in pores and the light dye is bringing it out, but I didn't have this problem on the test pieces or the other body. I have sanded back and re-applied the amber 3 times and I keep getting the same result each time with the same intensity. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do from here?

Here is a photo of the body:

and a closeup of the dots:

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[verhoevenc]

I'm guessing that's likely how that piece of wood wants to absorb things. Some maple will react weird. I did a top awhile back that had a different weird absorbtion:

See how it didn't absorb to the same degree in a number of spots and looked blotchy. I tried tons of stuff... that's just what the nature of this piece was. I sanded it all back, used that as my "dark sand back" then sprayed the burst instead to get this:

Chris

[82cabby]

That looks great! Man that blue pops!

I could sand it back and spray the burst, but I was hoping to use a 2k clear on it. I think I would have to stick with nitro if I was going to spray the burst. Plus I have to sand virtually all the color out to get rid of the dots.

[ScottR]

I don't find the dots objectionable in the least. It looks like you've got some birdseye going on in your quilt. In fact, I absolutely love the job you've done on the quilt. I wouldn't change a thing.

SR

[killemall8]

You can still use 2k if you spray the burst. Pick up some house of kolor kobalt blue ready to spray kandy. About 12 bucks for a 4 ounce bottle that is perfect for this.

[Tim37]

I am gonna second scott its just part of the grain doesn't look bad to me.

[82cabby]

Thanks gang. Based on the votes of confidence, I'm going to proceed as is. Although, I'm going to keep the HOK candy idea in the back of my mind for the next build!

I will post a picture when its done for reference.

Thanks all!