Black nitro paint that isn't very black?
 

I have finished a bass in black nitro.


Recently, my buddy did a guitar in nitro black as well.


I used Deft for my paint. He used Gracey's.

What I have noticed about both finishes, is that they both aren't deep black when placed in sunlight. It's almost like a super dark gray.

I'm doing a new bass that is black, and I'd like something more deep black.

Is dull black indicative of nitrocellulose paint?

My brother painted his tele with gracey's, and the finish on that is a beautiful, thick, deep, natural looking black.

I think it depends on how you do the finish. He used gracey's for the sealer, color, and clear.

Did either of you use different brands for the same finish? I think using a different brand clear (Deft over gracey's) changes the appearance, making it look a little hazier and not as deep and thick. Which could make it look more gray to you.

Also, he did a LOT of wet sanding and used a lot of clear, which is key to getting that mirror like gloss, and again I think the glossier your finish the deeper it's going to look. Also, his sealer was clear- did either of you use a colored primer or paint over another color?

If you look at his tele in the sun, the black colorcoat has a real subtle haze to it that looks a bit grey, but still quite dark. I think that's just a function of their particular paint, or maybe nitro in general, but to me it looks very natural. It's sort of a more organic black color.

I think if you use gracey's sealer, color, and lots of their clear, and you wet sand a lot, you'll get a nice thick black color. That's my .02.

I know my buddy used rattle cans for his paint. I think he used white primer/sealer. He's definitely not as anal as me, so I was a bit suprised at how smooth he got his finish.

For my PBass, I used tinted (black) sealer, color and a bunch of clear with wet sanding. I also used a pretty nice sprayer. You don't really notice it's gray unless in sunlight.

Being that we used different techniques, but ended up with relatively same results, makes me think that nitro isn't as deep a black as poly?

I think the issue is the number of color coats that you put on. The pigment in black lacquer will always be somewhat transparent. The more coats you put on, the more opaque and deeper black it gets. You probably sprayed on enough coats that it looked okay in indoor lighting, but more coats would have made it deeper black in all lighting. Remember that nitro lacquer sprays on thin. When I do an all-black instrument, I generally spray 4-8 coats of black, checking it carefully in sunlight before moving on to the clear topcoats.

Poly sprays on a lot thicker per coat, so fewer color coats are needed, like 2-4.

As cstar mentioned, the gloss level of the top clear coats also make a difference. Higher gloss makes the black look darker; lower gloss makes it look grayer.

Okay! That makes more sense. I will add more coats in this build.

black is the absent of light. black paint is really extremely dark purple, brown, blue, or a combination of those 3. Put a bunch of coats on it.

I CAN'T NOT DO IT.


None more black.

if you head to a business that supplies paint to bodyshops. they have some small square stickers that are divided into four segments with white and, usually, yellow alternating in the corners. think of four adjacent squares on a checkerboard. these are used to measure coverage of the basecoat colors. apply the sticker to a masked off area close to where you are spraying the color and when all four squares of the sticker are the color you are using, you have complete coverage. it's simple, cheap and it works. i will find an example and add a link when i find one.