Here is a mahogany / EIR I did with straight SM “tobacco brown” aniline dye directly on the bare neck wood, the body is natural.
I have no idea what the water / dye ratio is, I’m not good at keeping track of these things, but keep in mind that actual tone of the color is one factor; how wet your rag is when you wipe it on, how many times you wipe and so on will also affect things. One is tone, the other is saturation. Hesh’es advice about avoiding sand troughs is also very good, so make sure you have enough clear coats on before you start levelling and polishing. I find it almost impossible to make invisible repairs if I sand through the color coats, down to bare wood.