Bass build #2 - staining

[Bardolph]

My current build is a solid alder body. I'm going to stain it mahogany red. Should I use wood filler on the sides of the body so the stain doesn't show up darker than on the front and back?

And a few progress pictures...

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[whitcomb-basses]

I've often heard that using different grits of sandpaper will help keep staining even. By sanding the endgrain to a finer grit it won't be so thirsty and soak up as much stain. I would test with as much scrap as possible to get the grits right. I'm thinking 220 on the face grain and either 320 or 400 on the end grain. Give it a try see what happens.

Wood filler is a bad idea. I had a slip of the router once and thought wood filler would make it disappear. Wrong. Made the whole thing worse. Wood filler doesn't hold stain like normal wood does.

Here's a pic of my very first build. You can see the difference in stain on the wood and wood filler.