Need some finishing advice: pore filler and staining.

[Andrew]

So I have an electric build pretty well ready for staining and spraying, and I need some pointers etc. up to this point Ive only done straight clear finishes, but I need to expand my repertoire a bit, and this guitar would look kinda blah in w just a clear finish.

The guitar is a curly european ash body with a curly big leaf maple cap and headstock cap, and a rock maple neck. Its going to be dyed transparent black with black burst/shading around the edges and top coated with clear.

My main quandry is how to deal with filling the pores in combination with the dye. Should I fill the pores of the ash with a natural pore filler to match the ash, then follow with stain? Colour the pore filler black, then follow with stain? I like the idea of clear pore fillers, but I dont know if you can stain the wood after using them, or at least the epoxy ones, and filling after staining seems like asking for trouble with sand throughs...

Basically any pointers, general information and advice, and opinions etc. would be appreciated. I defer to the many years of experience gathered on this forum for guidance. Obviously Ill be doing lots of testing before I dive in, but Id like to get a decent idea of what direction to go in as my resources and workspace are quite limited. Also I dont want to get the process to complicated for this reason.

And the requisite pic:

[William F.Eden]

I beleave  there was a thread just last week on this subject .You mite be wise to look it up and read it.Bill..........

[Russell Vance]

You have three different types of wood here which will direct dye/stain to different degrees - which will give you a tri-colour guitar that no amount of shader/tinted (short of solid black) coats will mask.  My only additional advice is that you buy a book(s) on finishing guitars and read it (available at stewac.com) before coming back to the forum.  What you are about to attempt is at the upper end of the finishing skill set.  You should also view reranch.com as they have some good free info there along with finish schedules and  finish supplies for 101 stuff.

Regards, Rusty.

[Andrew]

Ive got all the books stew mac has, and one or two others, so Ill certainly read em all again. Still, some direction would be good. I realize Ive gotten in the deep end. Sometimes thats how you learn to swim though. I get laid off for the winter soon so Ill have time to experiment before I get to the actual guitar.

[Robbie Collins]

The possibilities are endless. You can leave the wood natural, seal it, then use a colored pore filler; or dye the wood, seal it, and use a contrasting pore filler; or dye the pore filler and rub into the wood thereby coloring the wood and filling the pores, seal it, then do transparent color coats.  It depends on the effect you're going after.

[Andrew]

Im going back over my reading and developing a process. So far im thinking: dye it, washcoat w shellac, fill the ash pores with either black or clear pore filler (probably twice), do a light wipe sand, put down some build coats, sand level, opaque black primer at the edges, black toner shading, then top coats.

Thoughts?

Im wondering what the amber tone of shellac will look like over the black dye, although being a washcoat the tone shift should be minimal.

Anyone here used CrystaLac clear waterbase pore filler? Ive read some encouraging things.