Dartfords Pigmented Nitrocellulose Lacquer Strong Black - 400ml aerosol

Blonde, Butterscotch, Oxblood.. these and others are what we have named our Pigmented Nitro lacquers. Clear base but with solid colour pigments, these will give you a semi-opaque finish that will allow just a little bit of grain to show through.

Traditional nitrocellulose lacquer for instrument finishing and repair
Classic vintage formulation with minimal plasticisers and additives
Pigmented colours will only allow a small amount of wood grain to show through, giving a semi-opaque finish
Available in ready-to-use aerosol spray cans, or bottles for use in spray guns
Wide selection of colours from vintage butterscotch and blonde through to vivid contemporary teal and red

Pigmented nitrocellulose lacquers sit halfway between our tinted lacquers and cellulose paints. The pigment gives them colour and makes them semi-opaque. With just 1 or 2 light coats on wood with a well defined grain, some of the grain will still be visible. Build up further coats and these pigmented nitro lacquers will give full opacity.

Noteworthy Colours

Some of the colours have been developed for specific purposes:

White Blonde is a classic old 50s Fender colour, very subtly see-through white
Mary Kaye Telecatser colour, as originally made, is also this White Blonde
Vintage Butterscotch, a subtle off-white, mimics the effect of a Blonde finish having aged and discoloured over the years, so is good for creating a finish of how an original Blonde would look now
Toffee and Toffee Light Butterscotch are both stronger in colour than the Vintage Butterscotch and more in line with heavily aged or modern-repro Butterscotch finishes
For a Blackguard Telecaster all 3 of our Butterscotch finishes are valid, ultimately it is personal preference
Solid Black works well for the outer rim of 60s era Sunburst finishes, and Strong Cherry will do the middle stripe
Paisley Pink will give a good sunburst around our Paisley Decal Sheets
Smoky Cherry is a dark semi-opaque cherry red, which aside from being used as a standalone or sunburst colour is also great for masking neck repairs on Heritage Cherry Red guitars. This solid colour can be faded in to mask the repaired joint, and then covered with our Heritage Cherry Nitrocellulose Lacquer to bring it back to its original colour

Colour Representation

Every effort has been made to accurately represent these tinted colours, but really the swatches shown should only be used as approximate guidelines. The swatches themselves are all made in the same way:

6x6" square of Swamp Ash, filled with our Neutral Thixotropic Grain Filler
3 coats of our Clear Cellulose Sanding Sealer
2 coats of the colour lacquer
Allowed to dry overnight before photographing
The final colour you achieve will vary from these swatches due to:

Variations in how computers and mobile devices display colours
The colour of the wood to which the lacquer is applied
How many coats are applied
The thickness of each coat

What is the process for using these lacquers?

Starting with bare wood, the finishing process is:

Sand wood to 320 grit
Apply grain filler if the wood is porous (e.g. Swamp Ash or Mahogany), sand to 320 grit
Apply Cellulose Sanding Sealer, sand to 600 grit
Apply your choice of Pigmented Nitrocellulose Guitar Lacquer, do not sand
Finish with Clear Nitrocellulose Lacquer top coat
Polish

How much is needed to spray a guitar body?

On average we would recommend either:

1 Aerosol Spray Can, or
1 250ml Bottle (and you'll usually have about 100ml left) If you're also spraying the neck and headstock, as is often the case for set-neck guitars, you will likely need 2 Aerosols.

Which base coat should be used underneath?

If you are spraying onto a porous wood such as Swamp Ash or Mahogany, you will first need to use a grain filler such as dartfords Thixotropic Grain Filler.

For all of our nitrocellulose lacquers we recommend using dartfords Clear Cellulose Sanding Sealer as the base coat.

How many coats?

This pigmented lacquer is purely for look rather than building up the finish, so you only need to spray as many coats as you need to achieve the strength of colour that you want. The more coats you apply, the more opaque the colour will be.

Does it need a top coat?

Yes. These pigmented nitrocellulose lacquers are not top coats, and should not be polished directly. We recommend using dartfords Clear Nitrocellulose Guitar Lacquer.

Can this lacquer be polished?

We don't recommend it. This lacquer is semi-opaque, and the colour you see depends to a degree on the film thickness of the finish. As part of polishing you are sanding back and removing some of the finish - if this is done at all unevenly the result will be a patchy, variable colour finish. Without a top coat, as the lacquer wears through use this will also cause the film thickness - and therefore the colour - to change. As such, it's best to put a few coats of clear lacquer on top so that all polishing and wear only affects the clear top coat, and won't change the appearance of the guitar. Using a clear top coat will also allow you to achieve different sheen levels such as matt, satin and gloss, to your preference.

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