Brush on Stain?

Hey All,
I just picked up this maple veneer Tele body and am looking to finish it. I have a post from yesterday asking for ideas. anyway, I certainly want to keep the grain and therefor want to go translucent. If I went with a stain, after practicing on a separate piece, would it be workable to brush it on, let it dry and then hit it with my nitro spray cans. probably Deft. I don't have a spray rig and I've done 2 so far with rattle cans and they've come out great. I did use some wipe on stain on my butterscotch blond and it worked out good.
I guess what my question is, What is the best way to add a light translucent color, pre-nitro, that I don't have to have a semi-pro spray rig for. Brushes, rags and rattle cans.
Thanks, as always. greatly appreciated,
Dave

i just began staining my mahogany body last night. I would say since maple has a tight grain, staining process is easy. If you want a light translucent color.. I would say first choose what color stain you want. Lighter colors tend to give that lighter color tone look...makes sense! What i used to apply my stain was a lint-free cloth.. It feels like silk! To me it applies better then using a foam brush....With the foam brush i actually had to push a little to get some stain out...which made some blotches.
Also i am not sure if maple needs it, but you should pick up a can of wood conditioner (prevents blotches of stain from happening.)

To me i would never use a bristle brush, i have never used nitro.. So sorry i cant answer half your question! Good luck david! dont mess up that beautiful wood of yours!

When applying stain to any timber you have to be careful not to 'overstain' an area you've already applied the stain to as some timbers absorb the extra stain and that area can go darker than the adjacent areas. This can be a problem when you're using a brush as you need to keep filling the brush as you go and then it's easy to go over the edge of the area you've already coated.

When I stained the body of my tele I used an old rag and found that worked well. The stain I used was more 'gel-like' rather than liquid so it didn't soak into the timber in the same way.

Whatever you decide to use, be certain to try it out on a piece of scrap timber to work on the right technique to use first and, once you're happy with that, try the stain on a piece of the same type of timber as the body (if you have some available) or else do the back of the body before tackling the front. That way, any mistakes won't be so obvious!