| You can do either. If the wood has problems, painting a solid color with acrylic lacquer is a good way to go. Most Dupli-Color auto touch-up paint is acrylic lacquer, so you have plenty of inexpensive color choices. Stain is only for wood that's in nice shape and you need to be able to get the old color out - bleaching and similar techniques can be used. Clear coats are used over stains...but stain isn't my strong suit.
Doing a refin WELL requires stripping the existing finish, sanding, sealing the wood, more sanding, and re-painting. Figure 20+ hours for a first class job.
Reranch.com is a good "how-to" resource, and there are many TB threads on refinishing you will find by searching. Dan Erlewine's book on guitar repair (Amazon) is a superb reference on refinishing and all other maintenance and repair techniques.
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