Hybrid hand dyed/rattle can burst?

[J-Dizzle]

I'm refinishing a maple top. Apologies for any newby questions or if elements of this question have been discussed before.

My original plan was to do a hand rubbed dyed burst and then shoot clear nitro over. Colour is to be a dirty lemon or similar.

I was first going to use a darker dye such as brown to make the grain/flames more prominent, then sand it back and apply the yellow/amber.

However on my pieces of test maple i wasn't getting colors to my satisfaction.

I then managed to get a rattle can of nitro in the amber i wanted (quite difficult to get in Australia) so i think i am going to go that route instead.

My question is can i still do the darker dyed finish first to make the grain pop, sand it back and then spray the amber nitro over? Will the grain pop in the same way?

I know from watching numerous dyed burst finish videos that the lighter and darker dyes can blend and compliment each other to produce beautiful results.

Would an amber rattle can over a dark dye sanded back result in a similar grain pop or would it just look "wrong" because the dark dye and amber nitro probably won't blend in the same way as dyes do?

Has anyone tried this?

 

[ARandall]

I have never liked any of the maple that I have rubbed dye into. It always seems to stick in the pores in a bad way - even if you could get the colour to where you want it.
Dirty lemon is also going to be hard hand rubbing too. Its way better with spray.....but cans generally don't do it that well either as their pattern and intensity are just not right......too narrow and too much generally.

 

[Bill Hicklin]

Maple is a b!tch to stain and have it come out not looking splotchy. I'd do it like Gibson did, with tinted clearcoat.

 

[Draxond]

If you’re looking at dying it the darker color just to make the grain pop, you can do this but you have to sand back completely. Meaning no trace of dye anywhere but within the grain. There is a downside to doing this. It “locks in” the grain. Yes, it would look more prominent, but you will lose the chatoyance of the maple by doing so.