I'm not sure how the bleach will work, but what about going with a different wood that is more the color you're going for? "Korina" or "White Limba" (the same thing) is pretty close to yellow, it's also a really open grained wood and feels like mahogany, so you'd still get similar aesthetic qualities.

Keith,
I've bleached some visual defects out of mahogany before using wood bleach. If I remember right (it's been a while) it comes out on the pink-ish side. but should work with multiple applications. Check on scrap.
Shellac will will take dyes just fine as long and there are no compatibility issues between shellac and nitro.
Planing on filling the grain with just shellac is bad idea however, use a grain filler.

Your profile is on the left panel on every post you make Keith

Digelectric, aka Keith, I understand what you want to do and kind of why you want to do it (you've got a lot of mahogany....) but let me again ask why. I love mahogany, build most of my guitars out of it including my personal tele clone, and I go thru all sorts of effort when I finish them to bring out the very best in the wood.

You want to finish in a color that has been kind of a moving target for a lot of years - Erlewine has something like a dozen pages in his book on how Fender might have got their different blond colors. It sounds like a lot of work but if that is really what you want, why not start with a wood that will make it easier and save your mahogany stash for something else. Sticker it away in your basement, someday you will have a beautiful flamed top that just calls out for a mahogany body or the price will have gone up and you will say to your self "I'm sure glad I have that old hog"

If I can't talk you out of it, at least practice on some scrap until you get to the point where you have it completely nailed. It sounds like you will have enough fun just chasing after the blond.

I edited my last post - I was just looking at Erlewine's book.

The original Tele finish was a translucent white. So you could faintly see the grain.

It turned yellow with age.

There’s no reason you can’t do that with mahogany, but it’s not going to look the same at all.


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As you might imagine, I'm unlikely to want to find paint that yellows with age and hope it turns the right color of yellow over time, especially on a different type of wood than Leo Fender used many years ago. It's more likely that I'd want the right color of yellow paint to cover up the different color wood, which is unlikely to change colors over time. I hope you've found this clarification helpful