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I'm in the middle of a 5 string bass build . My neck is mostly Black Walnut but the body is made of Zebra wood , the problem is the Zebrawood is a little bright so I wanted to know if anyone has stained Zebra wood and what type of stain was used and what grit to sand to before staining ? I should also say i plan on using some type of oil finish . It's my first build and everything is going great so far so I would hate to mess up at this point . Thanks in advance !

I wouldn't put any stain on the Zebrawood. It's supposed to look like that. The white parts will tone down once the finish is applied. Try your finish on some scrap and you'll see how the colors mellow.
If you still want to stain (screw up) the wood after that, you'll have to find someone less opinionated than me to tell you.

Steve

I'd second what Steve says, zebra wood will darken slightly in time. People use zebra wood because of its contrast, it would be a shame to make it look like a more ordinary wood by toning that down. Another one of its qualities is how it reflects light, what jewelers refer to as chatoyancy. It's how a the wood in this case reflects light both off its surface and from down below its surface. Since I've never stained zebra wood, I can't say 100% but my instinct would be that a stain may hinder this effect. I've seen it on other woods like ribbon Sapele, and flame maple. That's my two cents.

This is a pic from my coffee table base, you can see the blond part has a nice honey color, not the straw color it starts out as.

I'll try some on a test peice I guess . If mine comes out like your that will be just fine for me .

Like they said, when you apply your finish, it will darken, so do a test run on some scrap. If you do decide to stain, go up to 400 (you COULD get away with only going up to 220, but 400 is better). You can use miniwax stain from the hardware store. I just finished two dulcimers with stained oak back/sides and tru-oil finish. I had no problems

Yeah , that's what I'm talking about . Thanks for the reply ! I'm going to try some oil on a scrap peice but if that's not doing it for me then its getting stain , just wanted to know if I go that route that stain and oil wouldn't turn into a festering mass . Thanks !