Dying

I mixed my dye solution and applied it to the guitar body with a folded paper towel. The wood sucked up the dye rapidly. I wondered if I should not have diluted the color with more water than I did. I figured most of the dye would be sanded off.

The guitar body with dye applied. While it looks very blue,
 it became more green after it was fully dry.

I immediately noticed a big problem. The veneer was repelling the dye in many areas near the binding at the edge of the body and in a thin stripe where the two pieces of veneer met in the middle of the body. This was the first time I thought there was a problem that I would be be able to fix. I had planned to sand the veneer down to achieve subtle grain popping pattern and then spray a tinted clear coat over the top. I might be able to sand enough to hide the areas where the dye did not penetrate.

The splice between to two halves of the maple veneer.

Areas along the edge of the body seemed to be contaminated
with glue and repelled the dye.

The worst example of the dye not penetrating.

If there were signs on the raw guitar that the dye would not take in these areas, I completely missed them. Perhaps glue got on the surface and was wiped off, or maybe too much was used and it soaked through the paper thin veneer. I couldn't know for sure but paying $28 extra for the veneer only to have it be so marred was disappointing.