Black Ice Finish?

[Dolando]

Hello all,

I was engineering a Motown theatre show last weekend and the bass player had a G&L bass with a finish called 'Black Ice'. It looked great, and I was wondering if anyone here has any idea how its done? I'd like to give it a go someday, maybe with some different combinations...

Cheers,

Adam

 

[bagman67]

Looks like ash with a black stain, light colored (maybe white, maybe "neutral" grain filler.

 

[Dolando]

Looks like ash with a black stain, light colored (maybe white, maybe "neutral" grain filler.

As simple as that? I assume you'd stain it, then grain fill, but don't you usually have to sand back after grain filling? I've never done it before so not sure on the process.

 

[bagman67]

I think in this case you'd stain it dark, seal, grain fill light, sand back, clearcoat.  Since it doesn't appear to be a smooth, glassy surface, you might just stop after your first attempt to fill rather than laboring over it endlessly to get it perfect.

 

[bagman67]

Having looked at photos of a few more specimens, I'm pretty confident it's dark stain, sealer of some kind,  and light grain fill, without much care taken to get it smooth; and then the clear topcoat.  Some specimens look like they sanded the color coat a little more aggressively, or else it just didn't darken the wood as much as the one you show here.

 

[Dolando]

Right, that makes sense, thanks! I'll add it to the list of finished I'd like to try out!

It was odd, last week i was wondering if it was possible to have a dark finish and light grain filler, instead of light finish dark grain filler...then this thing popped up.

 

[bagman67]

Collings has a similar finish they call "Doghair."  They actually do it on mahogany, not ash, but the concept is the same:

 

[bbl4ck]

I actually really like that doghair :icon_thumright:
I wouldn't mind trying one of those myself...
:rock-on:

 

[bagman67]

If you want to go this route, black india ink makes a very good opaque black stain, based on shellac.

 

[Tonar8352]

The Collins guitar looks like a wash coat of black lacquer then a white grain filler. That is a very cool look indeed.

 

[Cagey]

I agree. Need the Mahogany to pull it off, but that's not in short supply.

 

[stubhead]

You could use pink grain filler and call it "Poodlehead"....

 

[bagman67]

Or you could do pink milk paint, seal it, black filler, and you have the coveted REVERSE POODLE-HEAD!

 

[Dolando]

I can't decide if I like the dog hair look...I think I like it, just don't think I'd have it on my bass.

 

[clearerphish]

Not a fan opf the dog hair, but that black ice finish is awesome. I find myself drawn to swamp ash finishes more often these days. Might try my hand at that black ice...

 

[mgaut051]

I wonder if its just unfilled metallic black. Just getting reflection from the grain leading to lighter looking grain. Was it smooth?

 

[Ace Flibble]

I'm doing the same finish myself, on swamp ash. Though I've never heard the name 'black ice' before, I've seen this finish with all sorts of colour combinations before. Mayones use it on their 'Gothic' models of Setius and Regius guitars. If you go to Google Image Search and put in 'mayones gothic ash' you'll see some examples, including red with black grain, black with red grain, blue with orange grain, black with blue grain, and so on.

The way I know how to do it is to stain/dye with your main colour without filling the grain and then brushing over dry, metallic 'highlight' powder in whatever colour you want. Before it gets too stuck in you brush the surface lightly, so the powder falls off the smooth, raised areas of wood and stays in the grain. Then you give it a sturdy gloss coating to seal it in. This works with simple, high-contrast colours like black and silver or purple and gold.

The way Mayones does it seems to be they actually paint in the grain by hand.

 

[Supercooltattoo]

:help:New here so I hope I don't break protocol ....I have a black ice asat and the pics don't represent the look. It's a flat thin finish . The wood grain is a flat silver . When it was delivered it didn't look like I expected it to from pics on g&l web site. You can feel the grain . G&l cal it nearly naked and it is a thin finish