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Originally Posted by turmoil  i stripped the guitar down to the bare wood so will i need to use sealer or anything before i start painting? |
you're not actually painting, you're staining. for that, you want the bare wood.
stain soaks into bare wood--that's why you can still see the grain. the Stew Mac stains and other similar ones are water-soluble, so you dillute them in water. if the stain ends up too dark on your wood, you can wipe it down with a wet rag to pull some of the coloration out of the wood.
clear sanding sealer is sprayed on a stained guitar after the staining is all done, to build up the first levels of the finish.