Blotchy Alder Stain

[Omnipharious]

So, I took my Squier Jazz alder body and maple neck down to the wood, with the intention of staining them both to something of a black walnut colour. Well, I made sure I sanded the whole body with 80, then 120, then 220. Well, the maple is is staining perfectly, and after it's first coat, it looks great, and in another two or something coats, it will be exactly where I want it. The body is a completely different freakin' monster. It looks like I saved it from a bloody fire.

http://photobucket.com/squier-jazz-shots
(I don't want to flood the OP with 10 pictures, so you can just look through the album of the pictures)

I was not aware of it, but I looked around a bit later, and apparently you need to do a "washcoat" or something first, or else it will look blotchy, as it rightly does.

The body is a three piece body, and other than the extreme blotches, I somewhat like the grain, and I wouldn't mind seeing the lines between the pieces. I haven't bought all the hardware, and everything that would make the original idea I had for it work to begin with, so I can revise my plan, but I would like to stick with it, honestly. Is there a way to stain this well without going out and buying another $10-20 product that I will only use one time, and will sit for years.

Edit:

I forgot to mention, I have another small thing of stain that has poly in it, and the stain is almost the same colour as the stain that is on the body and neck now, but just a tad bit lighter. The stain that is on them is oil based, but if I watered down the poly stain, or diluted it with denatured alcohol, could I use that as a washcoat?

[Omnipharious]

If someone could help me somewhat soon, that would be very nice. I'm leaving the place which I can easily do the staining, and much other work to the body tomorrow, and then going on a vacation, so I wouldn't be able to do much work until January if I don't do it pretty soon.

[Musiclogic]

Yeah, you are kind of up the creek, you have so many different pieces of wood in the body that this is what you are going to get unless you coat/seal the complete body then shoot a suspended color over the top of the sealer to achieve what you want. There isn't much I can offer you in help to get where you want to go, Good luck.

[Omnipharious]

Will I be able to get very dark if I go that route? Because I just want it a dark brown, it doesn't have to be ebony, nor do I care if it's not the exact same colour as the neck; I figured with different types of woods, they would be different anyway, so that wouldn't bother me.

[Musiclogic]

I would say you can keep doing color until it's saturated, and should get pretty dark.

[line6man]

Frankly, I don't see the appeal of staining Alder. It's an unattractive wood, and that particular body is made up of multiple random pieces of wood.

I don't know anything about finishing, but to my knowledge, Alder does not take well to dyes and stains, either.

I would just paint the body a solid brown, rather than try to pull off a stain that, in the best case scenario, will still look horrible.

[Omnipharious]

I see your point, line6man. I'll try staining it one more time, and if it works, and it doesn't look bad, I'll keep putting on coats, but when I try it, and it still looks bad, I might just leave it natural, because I like the colour contrast with the neck, even if it is a bunch of crappy planks, or just go with a satin white.

[Stilettoprefer]

I kinda like the way it looks in the pictures... Except the extremely lighter spots... I'd keep going with the stain, or just leave it like that

[kenfxj]

I'd spray it chocolate brown and put a cream pearl guard on it.



I think it would look a lot nicer than anything you're gonna get out of that wood.