White Maple to Roasted Maple - Stain, Dye or some other process?

[carlsim]

Hi all you lovely wood people out there...

 

I am shortly taking delivery of a new bass and one of the first things I want to do is change the look of the headstock. It is one the Sadowsky Metro Express basses with the older RSD / Tesco looking decal... there is loads of discussion on here if you want to have a look into it - my plan will simply be to replace it with a eBay bought Sadwosky decal. I haven't seen anyone producing the Metro Express ones yet - if anyone knows where I can get one made as I know someone uploaded an image file on a previous post...

 

Anyway... I have a Stingray Special with a roasted maple neck and much prefer the look of roasted maple. Maple looks naff IMO when new and I can't be doing with that! So... can I create a roasted maple look on maple without shoving it in the oven for 3 hours? I have seen some posts online about soaking steel wool in tea or vinegar to stain the wood, anyone tried anything similar with some success? I know it won't be exactly the same, but I have seen varying degrees of roasted maple so even if I can darken it a bit in a similar way, it will look a lot better!

My plan will be to tru oil the back of the neck and possibly do a spray / wipe on poly to cover the decal and rest of the headstock once the process is complete. Possibly rubbing back to a satin finish rather than gloss.

 

Any contributions would be most welcome!

[bloke_zero]

I'm with you. I love the dark rich roast colours. I tried this:

I only put on a light coat and then quickly polished it off. If you wanted darker then you can leave it on. I'd be tempted to try it out on something non-precious, or maybe the hidden bit of the back of the neck to see if it's going to do what you want. It felt more brown than the rich yellowy brown of roasted. I'd be wondering about a double stain to get that kind of texture. But it might get you close enough.

[Andyjr1515]

I have been reminded, having foolishly let a tea bag sit in a slightly damp cup too long for this morning's 2nd cup of tea, that I have used tea as a stain in the past.  While you wouldn't want to use it as your primary stain, it can be great to darken a natural finish - and adds a teeny touch of amber too...