Alder>tinted grain filler>trans orange?

I have an Alder Tele body with some decent grain pattern. I'm thinking of painting it in translucent orange (Reranch orange). Should I use some tinted grain filler to help make the grain pop a bit more? If so, what kind of tint?

And any pros or cons to Minwax sanding sealer?

Alder doesn't have open grain like ash or mohagany does. Sometimes you will get a piece with slightly open grain, but nothing like ash so it doesn't accept grainfiller like ash does, so it's tough to enhance the grain in the same way. I'd skip the filler and just spray sealer and move on to color. Once you get sealer on it, you will have a good idea how pronounced the grain is.

As far as Minwax sanding sealer, I say skip it and go with deft. I'm talking about the one in the yellow can. I've never personally used it, but from what I heard from others it doesn't sand very well. People complain of it gumming up their sandpaper pretty quickly. I've never had any trouble using deft.

The other thing you could try that I did on a beautiful stick of alder that I scrapped was using a darker stain of some color, maybe a brown or mahogany since you're going orange. (my next build btw) letting it dry and sanding it back until only the grain has stain left in it. On my other, I then used a burgandy and it came out really nicely. I'll post a photo when I get back to the computer that has them.

You could try a quick wipe over with tung or danish oil. It will bring out the grain to a small degree and will take a finish.

Alder doesn't have open grain like ash or mohagany does. Sometimes you will get a piece with slightly open grain, but nothing like ash so it doesn't accept grainfiller like ash does, so it's tough to enhance the grain in the same way. I'd skip the filler and just spray sealer and move on to color. Once you get sealer on it, you will have a good idea how pronounced the grain is.

As far as Minwax sanding sealer, I say skip it and go with deft. I'm talking about the one in the yellow can. I've never personally used it, but from what I heard from others it doesn't sand very well. People complain of it gumming up their sandpaper pretty quickly. I've never had any trouble using deft.

I found that the Deft sanding sealer is pretty much the same. Stays gooey, at least in my climate. I like shellac over alder.

And I disagree with my esteemed colleague. I like Bartley's in a lightish blend over a nicely sanded alder body. It seals the surface and makes a great base to build shellac on. Once you have a real level coat of shellac you can switch the Deft gloss rattle can nitro, then when that's built enough and smooth, try some Mohawk "maple" like this:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t25/Bubbanov/21MAR212009003.jpg

This is ash - it'll look more orange over alder.

Thanks Boris and everyone.

Sanding sealer...maybe twice, color, clear coats. This is the way it was done back in the day by Gretsch, Gibson, Fender and others. NO need for stains, no oil rubbing...just nitro and some sanding work.
Here's one I did quite some years ago for a friend..it is a bit to the redder side of things but then Gretsch orange came in different shades of orange, also. It is more to the orange side of things in person. This is a picture of a picture. ASh body with some serious figuring in the neck. I did do some stain to make the figure in the maple neck pop.
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o175/Wally051/IMG_1376.jpg

I'm betting Reranch R'ang would look pretty close to my pinebody plank here.....you could grain fill and darken the grain somewhat and also stain and sand back.

Its R'ang 4 sho'.....

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i32/jsh1970/Picture517.jpg

I'm betting Reranch R'ang would look pretty close to my pinebody plank here.....you could grain fill and darken the grain somewhat and also stain and sand back.

Its R'ang 4 sho'....

I'm thinking of using ReRanch Orange. I'd like for the grain to pop a bit so I'm thinking of getting some light Barley's and seeing what happens.

I think that would look good....My reranch orange was very easy to use. I like the Red nozzle better than the white one.

I think that would look good....My reranch orange was very easy to use. I like the Red nozzle better than the white one.

Gotta say that I think it's very cool that ReRanch puts an extra, different patterned, spray nozzle in there - I haven't seen (in my extremely ltd exp) any other supplier that does that with their rattle cans.

mud

Gotta say that I think it's very cool that ReRanch puts an extra, different patterned, spray nozzle in there - I haven't seen (in my extremely ltd exp) any other supplier that does that with their rattle cans.

mud

Though I'm going to a different setup soon....the red nozzle works well with clears too.