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This is what I was doing all day.

5K views 57 replies 23 participants last post by  vampiregenocide 
#1 ·
Gotta say, even though it didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, I loved every second of it.

This is what I started with.


Now the scary part... first time taking a guitar apart.


Wasn't so bad.


Time to sand this mother.


I forgot to take pics for the rest of the process, so just behold the shitty results.


The back. I practiced dipping lots of stuff and didn't have too many issues. When it came to the real deal, I got nervous and my helper was less than...well, helpful.


I think I had too much paint and could have used a bit more thinner.

Guess this means I get to swirl a guitar again! Let's see if it's still fun after a few more tries. :lol:

I'll have pictures of tomorrow's attempts and hopeful success.
 
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#11 ·
I think that's a damn good first attempt, and you should definitely keep at it until you're happy with it. :yesway:

Swirling the pickguard may suck though, because unless you clearcoat the hell out of it, it's going to be prone to scrape-marks from any errant picking. Every pickguard I own has oodles of pick marks on it.

That said, swirls FTMTW! :D
 
#12 ·
I didn't think about pick marks. Also, considering the way the assembly is glued together, it would be fairly difficult to swirl that pickguard.

Well, I'm going to give it another shot tomorrow. Same colors, more thinner, less paint. Should be pretty sweet.
 
#14 ·
I think that was actually a pretty good first try. :yesway: While it would probably be cool as is, since you've had experience with it once, you could probably make it even better the second time.

The clear pickguard is a cool idea. I like it better than a swirled pickguard or just the regular white pickguard.
 
#17 ·
I don't think Alan form OOTS will tell anybody how he swirls, what paint to use etc. and rightfully so.

It's his business and bread.

There are a lot people that swirl. Very few can do succesfully however. Imo only three people can do it "the right way".

Darren (the original swirler)
Alan ( from OOTS )
Herc Fede

There is a large thread dedicated to swirling at Jemsite. Even the so called experts who wanted to figure out swirling and giving instructions how to do it, look like not so good swirls and completely miss the boat.

If someone wants to figure it out: be preprared for extensively research for type of paint. Maybe borax, maybe not. And lot's of testing.

For a first swirl, this is pretty good!
 
#23 · (Edited)
I don't think Alan form OOTS will tell anybody how he swirls, what paint to use etc. and rightfully so.

...

There is a large thread dedicated to swirling at Jemsite. Even the so called experts who wanted to figure out swirling and giving instructions how to do it, look like not so good swirls and completely miss the boat.

...

For a first swirl, this is pretty good!
Thanks.

I had been reading up on swirling for a long time before I tried this yesterday. I saw that thread at Jemsite... read all 15 pages plus several other threads there. As you said, no one has really found the magic formula yet, and I agree that the masters shouldn't have to reveal their trade secrets. However, I think some people are getting closer. We may get a few more great swirlers out of the experiments going on.

It might be worth asking the guy from OOT how he does his, I think he posts here.
This is a better example of one of his.

No harm in asking - not that anyone will give away secrets, but I'm sure any of those guys would offer up some pointers. :yesway:
Well, guys, I can tell you I'd love to pick his brain. From seeing how the paint behaves and the patterns of the black on the color, I can already make a few guesses as to what he did differently, too.

First, he probably poured his color first, then the black. Every resource will tell you to pour the darkest paint first, but as you can see, the black is resting on top of the green and red, so either he poured the black second or he drizzled a little on top after the colors.

Edit: OR! He did a base coat with the color and either just swirled black or perhaps did black with a clear or some type of substance that would suspend the black that way.

Also, he swirled the paint a little more than I did. Smaller areas of color, I think mine was too blocky. I marbled, excuse me, swirled, a plastic container in just black and white and it came out righteous but that was because it had lots of smaller lines. Oh, and I don't think he used Rustoleum.

Still, for my purposes, I think the Rustoleum is a great paint. It's inter-mixable so you can get some great colors out of it as long as you don't want too flourescent or neon. They make a glow in the dark latex, too. I'm tempted...
 
#22 ·
That's a pretty sweet first attempt, I really dig the front :yesway:.

That 2nd OOT swirl :drool: aw yeah, that needs a recessed TOM instead of the FR routing, then it needs to make its way over to my house.
 
#28 ·
Hee hee. We're creepy, Groff.

Ok, so here's what I came up with today. I had issue after issue with the base coat; for some reason bugs REALLY like to commit suicide by landing in wet paint. Anyway, I sanded, primed, base coat in purple!!!

Front


Back


Excluding that one drip, I'm pretty happy with this one.
 
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