[I apologize in advance if this sounds more like an art question; looking across SE this site seemed to be the best fit for my question.]
I'm refinishing a bass guitar that I stripped down to the bare wood. The wood itself appears to be alder, from what I can tell. The current plan is to give it a single coat of Minwax Golden Oak to bring out the grain and then add some accents with oil paint, finishing with a few coats of clear satin thereafter. While I'm pretty comfortable with the staining portion of it, the paint raises a few questions:
- Should I sand where I intend to paint after it's been stained (e.g. with 000 or 0000 steel wool, perhaps)?
- Should there be a clear coat between the paint and the stain?
- How soon after painting can I put a clear coat over it?