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Home : Finishing supplies : Colors, tints, and stains : ColorTone Liquid Stains

Authentic guitar colors that make wood grain come alive!

ColorTone Liquid Stains


Read 76 Reviews   |   Write a Review

Authentic traditional guitar finishes, spectacular sunbursts, and head-turning modern custom hues are tough to create off the hardware store shelf. ColorTone® liquid stains are the luthier's answer. They're accurate and authentic stringed instrument colors, as researched and specified by our own guitar finishing experts—not the generic furniture colors you'll find at other suppliers.

These concentrated grain-enhancing stains are economical; a little goes a long way. Reduce them with alcohol or water to give bare wood beautiful fade-resistant color, without hiding the grain. They're versatile, too. For applying transparent color-tinted coats, ColorTone stains can be mixed directly into virtually any finish: nitrocellulose lacquer, shellac, waterbase finishes, and catalyzed varnishes or lacquers.

Available in 2-ounce bottles, in the most popular stringed instrument colors. SAVE when you order the set of all ten!

See details below

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ColorTone Liquid Stains
 
  Item# Description In stock Price Quantity
5032 Red mahogany Yes
$18.45

5033 Medium brown Yes
$18.45

5034 Tobacco brown Yes
$18.45

5037 Lemon yellow Yes
$18.45

5038 Cherry red Yes
$18.45

5039 Blue Yes
$18.45

5040 Black Yes
$18.45

5041 Bright green Yes
$18.45

5042 Orange Yes
$18.45

5030 Vintage amber Yes
$18.45

5029 Set of all 10 colors SAVE $10.50 Yes
$174.00


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Instructions
ColorTone liquid stains are lightfast metal-complex dyes that can be mixed for practically any desired intensity. Unlike off-the-shelf hardware store stains, they're formulated for guitar finishing. One 2-ounce bottle makes two quarts of stain at normal concentration. Because they're liquids, they can be measured precisely for critical color matching—a plus for refinishing and touchup work. (See our handy stain mixing cups and pipettes.)

Questions about finishing? Look here first:
Guitar Finishing Step-By-Step

How to match color on vintage binding repairs
How to match color on vintage binding repairs
How to match color on vintage binding repairs Read more

In this issue:
Working on an aged Les Paul, Erick Coleman has to sand part of the yellowed binding. The sanded spots are a glaring white mismatch. Erick makes turns the repair invisible with a little ColorTone spray and stain.
Read more...

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 Ratings and reviews
ColorTone Liquid Stains
ColorTone Liquid Stains
 
4.5 out of 5 stars
Based on 76 ratings Write a Review
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Displaying 1 – 10 1  2  3  ...  8 >
5 2-03-2012
my first build

bought the bright green waterbase stain,i'm very happy with the intensity. finished the sanding sealer and getting ready for laquer

jimness  stuart,florida
Customer supplied image for review
5 1-25-2012
Great Stain

This stain was absolutely perfect. The quality of the color that I got was top-notch. Easy to use, I wiped on with a rag and then sanded for a burst finish with the green and black dyes. Great products every time from StewMac!

rhutch  Pasadena, CA Read my reviews (7)
Customer supplied image for review
4 1-18-2012
Color Tone Liquid Stains

Most excellent for tinting lacquers and shellac for toning your finish. It takes a bit more knowledge and experience to safely use as an alcohol stain.

kincannon3  Hammond, LA Read my reviews (2)
5 1-18-2012
just perfect

Hello,

I buy tree tones, red mahogany, red cherry and black and I have done a very good tint mixing those tree colours. I have use only a small part of the Bootles and it was enough for my test and for painting all the guitar. I have done at least 5 layers. The tint is deep and homogeneous. The shipping was quick and perfectly traceable.
Many thanks to all your team!

Matteo

Just perfect  Geneva (CH)
Customer supplied image for review
5 1-13-2012
Great for Sunburst finish

I used these liquid stains for a tobacco burst on my 17" arch top. Worked beautiful. I put them in brushing laquer but I sprayed the burst on before brushing the last coats.

Guitar Robert  Santa Rosa Calif.
Customer supplied image for review
5 12-29-2011
The good kind of stain

These stains worked great. I used the Vintage Amber and Lemon Yellow to create the two tone sunburst. Worked great as a stain on unfinished wood (headstock) and mixed in with the Behlen Lacquer for aerosol finish (body). I highly recommend this, it only takes a couple drops to get the desired color.

BirdRiverCustoms  Maryland Read my reviews (2)
Customer supplied image for review
5 12-25-2011
First Time Stain User

Per suggestion from Erick Coleman I ordered both the Red Mahogany and the Med. Brown stains to make up a Root Beer color. Mixing one oz. of the Red Mahogany with one half an oz. of the Med. Brown into a quart jar of Lacquer Thinner I was able to get the exact color I was after. The whole process was easy and fun! Turned out great. I can't imagine how this product could be any better.

Mark Webber  Seattle, WA. Read my reviews (4)
5 12-13-2011
only the best from stewmac

this is the best it is waterbased and has a very beautiful authentic but new color and you can mix and match to get the exact color in your mind

JRZ  Victorville,CA Read my reviews (7)
5 12-08-2011
Great stain!

Stain worked great, be sure to thin it though or else it goes on real heavy.

JasonE  Worcester,MA Read my reviews (3)
5 12-06-2011
Eye Popping

Superb stains! Great for staining straight on bare wood and even better for adding to clear coats. Very pleased with products. We used the black and blue to stain the bare maple top then used some more blue in the clear to get a nice burst.

CA Guitarworks  UK Read my reviews (7)
Customer supplied image for review
Displaying 1 – 10 1  2  3  ...  8 > /\ Top of Reviews


Shown on page 39 of our latest catalog.


ColorTone® is a registered trademark of Stewart-MacDonald Manufacturing Company, Inc.

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