What paint for a guitar?

I actually quite like a wood stain, if you go for a stronger colour rather than just a boring woodtone, like the one in this vid (which is a bit of a crap vid but just see the bass colour). Mind when you said wood stain I assumed you were likely to have meant a more usual woodtone, if you had already thought of a brighter colours just ignore me. 

I've used clear, undercoat and colour rattle cans from the DIY store. All on swamp ash. I wouldn't describe the finishes as professional but they went on fine and are wearing well. I did them at the time grained finishes were popular so skipped the filler coat under the colour.

After having just built a left handed Strat copy from Harley Benton, I can definitely recommend Rit dyes followed by TruOil. It's ridiculously easy to get a vintage burst effect with the Rit dyes and Tru Oil leaves a beautiful semi-gloss finish.

Make sure you spend the time to fully sand off the finish that the guitar comes with because it won't take otherwise.

I'm now doing a Jaguar/Jazzmaster homage for a mate. He wants metallic blue and it's a magnitude of difficulty harder.

I have plenty of guitars, but given I acquired the kit I was planning on doing a full relic build of a tele. Since you need nitro to relic it properly that's now off the table. 

Don't fancy sunburst. Thinking about it I may just go for a dark red stain. I dont have any red guitars! Any tips? It it simply a case of staining with a water based stain? Do I need to clear coat? 

I've seen a chap on YouTube do it and he didn't sand the bare wood. Is that a prerequisite?

Ta

I made a guitar, guided by a local luthier.  I gave him a sample of the colour I wanted and he took it to his usual place to get a litre made up.  It's car paint and it looks fine to me!

I guess there was quite a bit left over as I've seen a couple of his later builds in the same fetching shade of blue.

I've seen a chap on YouTube do it and he didn't sand the bare wood. Is that a prerequisite?

I guess it depends on what kit you have. Both Harley Bentons I've done came with some kind of satin finish over the bare wood and certainly wouldn't take any kind of stain until sanded.

Also depending on the grain it might be nice to accentuate that. I did it on my Strat by staining the whole thing black, then wetting the wood to make it "swell", then sanding all over again. Left a nice dark colour to the grain which shows through the burst I subsequently applied.

Clear coat over water-based stain hasn't gone too well for me, it's kinda peeling off on the back, but Tru Oil will give a really nice finish and can be polished to whatever level of sheen you want.

This is a really good series on prepping and painting a guitar. I followed it when I built my kit guitar and it kept me right