I have an old Hutch that I want to take off the top and just the bass

After removing the top you could paint or stain the hutch. I guess that is what you are asking.

Take off the top, strip the piece, and stain with cherry stain, put a top coat on.

The hard and stupid way would be to strip the old finish off the wood and then restain everything and put a fresh coat of poly on it. The smart, easier and way fast way would be to first rough up the finish a bit with a fine grade sandpaper. You've got to get rid of the shiny top coat. Then clean everything up really well and use a dark cherry 'wiping stain' on all your wood. You can recoat after drying overnite if you need a deeper tone. So kafter drying for 24 hours since the final coat of stain, rub everything very lightly with a very fine grade of steel wool. Just enuf to remove any 'nubblies' on the surface. Then clean it all up again. When you clean it after sanding or steel wooling the surface, use a tack cloth for best results. So then, finally, you need to seal your piece well with a poly (clear coat) to seal in the stain. You can use polyurethene (oil-based) or polyacrylic (water-based). They both work fine. Just remember that polyurethene yellows over time, which gives it a prematurely aged look. For the nicest result you will need about 3 thin coats of poly, and letting it dry fully for 24 hours between coats (no matter what it tells you on the can about drying time). And after each poly coat dries, you need to rub out the surface a little with the same steel wool. And clean well with tack cloth before recoating. After final clear coat, do NOT steel wool it again. It would be best to just rub it out with a piece of thick brown paper grocery bag. That's how I do it. TIP: for the nicest finish, make sure your poly is a SATIN finish. Do not use gloss finish on furniture. It looks cheap. I'm jus sayin...

You can stain over stain with Minwax Polyshades to change the color.

http://www.minwax.com/how-to-finish-wood/change-stain-color-with-polyshades/