I have a swamp ash bodied Steinberger Spirit that came in a light burst finish. The figure of the body (four piece) isn't spectacular, but isn't bad, either. I am hoping to strip the finish and apply a Warwick-style wax finish. Please see - and feel free to respond to - my earlier thread on this.

Anyway, what can I do to "pop" what figure there is before I wax the body? The local Rockler store suggested a colored wax would do it, but I'd like to stick with a natural color.

I can go with a colored finish if I need to (I've had good luck with "WoodBurst" tung-oil based finishes), but prefer natural.

Ideas?

A friend of mine spray painted his g#!t@r body black and then sanded it back off, and then stained the body. The black got into the grain. The grain stands out much better. Looks pretty good.

the other day i saw a luthier working on a ash bass, and he just scribbled on the body with a pencil a bit, then rubbed it all in (this was prior to finishing!) It really "blackened" those big ash lines...

I would suggest staining the body, then sand it off. The stin will stay in the open (deep) part of the grain. Even if you wipe on, then wipe it off before it dries it will darken the lines quite a bit.