Nord User Forum

I have fabricated a few custom end panels for my Nord Lead 4. Is there any way to contact Clavia so that I can ask them which exact color they use for the Nord Lead 4? I think all the Nords are the same red, so how do I go about finding out what it is?

I would be surprised if Nord would share this information and it’s probably custom in house finish. Paint stores can match colors well, if you want to consider that. Years ago I bought some basic candy apple red paint off the shelf at Lowe’s and it looked pretty close.

Thanks for the reply ericL. Was it paint that you bought? Or stain, or laquer? I ask because I can clearly see the grain of the wood through the "paint", and I think paint is opaque. I was thinking that Gibson Candy Apple Red looked pretty close to the Nord color, I may order that and test it on the back of the panel.

If you buy a simple paint the grains will not be visible. Just get a red stain and apply one coat and let dry. If you think the color is too light apply another one and so on. The more coats you apply the darker the color. When you achieve the desired result let dry and apply a coat of transparent laquer (I think the newer nords have a satin laquer while the older ones had gloss). For even better result sand the wood before painting with multiple snadpapers starting from a coarse one (100 or 120) to a finer (360 or 400). Good luck!

I´d recomment getting a product (the red one) wich is simply water based, like dye. There are colours available, originally used for hobby handcrafting stuff (wood) that is not supposed to be used outside. No problem with that, since you really have to coat it after that with colourless transparent laquer, like Alex said. The water-based colour is uncritical to any later coating, no matter wich solvents might be used in it. They just colour the wood without covering it - like I said, like dye into fabric, it goes into the wood. Let it dry thoroughly after that. Again, like Alex recommended, sand the surface again to the quality you want to see in the final result. The water-based colour will most likely cause the wood to spread some small fibers out. The later laquer cannot cover it. Since the dye-like colour is inside the wood it will not go away as long as you just do final finishing-works before the laquer comes.
After that I recommend using a 2 component laquer. You can get them ready to mix in spraycans. Just one-time use, after mixing they dry inside the can after some days, no matter what, that´s a chemical reaction. It´s like resin. When you choose a high gloss product, you will be rewarded with a very durable and awesome looking finish. The coloured wood will get additionally depht and the surface will become hard and resilent. The standard paint is not that resistant to the usual things keyboards experience while being transported. It will keep is gloss over years.
This stuff is more expensive, but the best you can get and worth it.