Stripping and staining walnut body - advice please

[BigRedX]

If you don’t like the body shape as well as the colour how about getting a new body made to fit the rest of the hardware?

[Grooverjr]

8 hours ago, BigRedX said:

If you don’t like the body shape as well as the colour how about getting a new body made to fit the rest of the hardware?

The body shape is fine. It sits nicely on the lap to mostly balance the neck and the cutaway is just in the right place so I have no complaints there. It's purely a colour complaint.

[fretmeister]

I’ve been doing a bit of staining myself.

used a Spirit stain and currently doing the Tru-Oil finish.

 

It was a normal unfinished slab body and I did the arm and belly carves. I purposely didn’t use a grain filler after sanding to 320 grit as I wanted a bit of a reclaimed barn wood look.

 

2 coats of stain, then gently sanded back to smooth / remove nibbling and to reduce the stain thickness on some edges just for some variation. 
 

Then Tru-Oil. Currently at 4 coats of tru oil.

 

Tomorrow I’ll be getting the 0000 wire wool out to very gently smooth it and to see if I need any more oil coats. If not then I’ll hang it for 2 weeks to let the oil cure properly and to rock hard, then polish it. Or I’ll do another couple of coats.

[Norris]

4 hours ago, Grooverjr said:

The body shape is fine. It sits nicely on the lap to mostly balance the neck and the cutaway is just in the right place so I have no complaints there. It's purely a colour complaint.

Vinyl wrap?

[Grooverjr]

19 hours ago, Norris said:

Vinyl wrap?

Ooh, that might be a short term fix. Something to consider

[BigRedX]

On 26/12/2025 at 17:14, Grooverjr said:

The body shape is fine. It sits nicely on the lap to mostly balance the neck and the cutaway is just in the right place so I have no complaints there. It's purely a colour complaint.

 

That's weird. The way you had worded your previous post suggested that you didn't like the body shape.

[BigRedX]

On 24/12/2025 at 18:08, TimR said:

They'd glue back together pretty easily.

 

They'd at least be able to tell you whether it's likely to work.

 

I'd rather spend £50 on someone with some expertise than two weeks in my back garden and end up with a lung disease and RSI. 

 

Good luck with trying to accurately glue together 4 pieces of wood with no straight edges on the non-glue surfaces. I wouldn't want to do that.

[TimR]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

Good luck with trying to accurately glue together 4 pieces of wood with no straight edges on the non-glue surfaces. I wouldn't want to do that.

 

There are ways. But ultimately as long as you don't use caustic soda, dipping will be no different to any other method.

[BigRedX]

6 minutes ago, TimR said:

There are ways. But ultimately as long as you don't use caustic soda, dipping will be no different to any other method.

 

Yes, but if you looked at the photos in the OP, you'll see that the body is a two piece sandwich with each "slice" being in two halves, and at least one of the joins appears to bisect the recess for the neck joint. That means reassembly will have to be accurate to less than 1mm in order for the rest of the parts to fit properly without additional sanding and routing. Personally I wouldn't risk it and I wouldn't recommend that the OP risk it either.