Finishing: Stain the wood or tint the clearcoat?

[TAorama]

What's the best way to color a figured wood? For example, say you've got a 5A flamed maple top, and you want to have the finished guitar be transparent red, or purple, or blue, or whatever like the Prestige or USRG guitars. Do you stain the wood and then clearcoat it, or clearcoat it with the color tint in the clear? Ibanez tints the clear, don't they? Any advantages or disadvantages?

Thanks,
Andy

[gtrcollectr]

I would use a wipe coat of black stain to bring out the figure and follow with a water based stain. Follow the tutorial on projectguitar.com it is a good one.

Todd