Stripped all the paint off, here's a look at the naked body to help you decide what color to choose:
 

Valentino,
 
The wood is better than I had expected.  What are your thoughts.  I would like to try something clear and natural.  Do you have any suggestions.
 
Richard

How about an amber tint?  My fave!
 
Michael

Always mine, too, Michael.  Tiger eye, tortoise shell, violin amber, antique violin, a bunch of names for relatively similar finishes from different sources.  I love the way those tints bring out the grain, and this wood seems to have nice lines.
 
-bob

for myself, if not natural, i'd go with a greenburst. you can't go wrong with a nice british greenburst.

I think a blue dye would be awesome on that grain.

If I recall, this was originally a stormburst finish?!?? She deserves either an amber or wineburst finish IMHO.... so many choices... hmmmm.....

Thanks for all of your comments.  It is encouraging to know that so many people take an interest.  I like the amberburst, but the amberburst finish, shown on the site seems too yellow.  I would prefer more of a brownish, more orange style of amber, though still light revealing the wood grain, rather than a yellow.  Does anybody have any further suggestions?
 
RB

Hello Richard,
 
since we can do a lot of different color finishes (an orange wash is definitely a possiblity), my suggestion would be to find a picture of an instrument, or wood object, preferably made of maple  (or another light wood like ash, sycamore or holly)  that sports a finish you like. Then send it to us and we'll do our best to match it.  
 
Valentino

Best bet is probably to surf for some guitar photos that you like and present them to the Alembic elves.  One place you might start is the PRS website.  Their private stock instruments show a lot of great brownish amber finishes.
 
They are at www.prsguitars.com.
 
(Edit:  It's always great to cross-post the same answer as the bosses...)
 
(Message edited by bsee on January 25, 2006)

The yellow or amber you are after is sometimes called old violin I think.
Could be nice!
 
Paul TBO

Try Warmoth's site for inspiration...they have galleries of all types of guitar/bass body styles with translucent finishes over highly figured maple.
 
http://www.warmoth.com/gallery/gallery.cfm
 
 


 
 
The above is a Strat-style instrument from the linked site, for instance.

...And four more for good measure.    



 



   Enjoy!  Cheers,  Kevin  (Message edited by davehouck on January 26, 2006)

I'm not good at this type of thing, but it does occur to me that the grain in this case looks like it would work well with a burst design.  You stated above that you like the amber burst but thought it might be too yellow; so maybe something between an amber burst and a tobacco burst.

Gosh - a naked California Special! The natural wood looks quite nice. If it were mine, I'd leave it natural - with, at the most, a thin warm wash to bring out the grain.
 
Tom