Swirling a stratocaster-shaped guitar with Magic Marble paints in black/blue/silver. Clearcoated with 2k automotive clear. I'm showing the process and giving some tips on how to get it right. / traqguitars
Awesome video. You said all the appropriate tips for people new to this painting technique. I recently started painting guitars with the same exact paint/method. If you do this the right way, including the preparation steps, the finish, the clear coat, the buffing...you can put some masterpieces out there. Very exciting
A couple questions… How long do you need to keep your guitar under the water? Also when I’ve taken objects out of the water little water bubbles remain. How do you get rid of those? Hairdryer ..fan? Any other technique? Just shaking didn’t seem to do it. Relying on sanding afterwards doesn’t really work since it sands off the color.
I don't really think you need to keep the guitar under water for any set time, the water is just a medium to transfer the paint onto the body, that's it. Now getting the paint to be absolutely smooth after taking the body out is actually quite tricky. A combination of hairdryer/paper towell can make the surface reasonably clean so that you don't pick anything up on the way out, but the Magic Marble paint that I'm using tends to form a little clumps here and there no matter what I do. And as you say - level sanding won't work since the color layer is so thin you're guaranteed to sand through. The only way I figured out that actually works is to wait until you have enough clearcoat on and then level sand that - you'll go throught the clear where the color formed a clump, but the clear will keep you from sanding through the color at that point. And once you've done that, the body is prefectly level and just needs a few more layers of clear before the final sanding and polshing
Excellent video and perfect result. I’ve tried with enamel paint cause we cannot get hold of marble paint over here. The problem I faced with is the paint turned into thin film on the surface. Do you know why and how to avoid that? May be you’ve have some infos, can you recommend some tips, please?
thanks :) I have zero experience with enamels unfortunately. Did you use borax? That's the first thing that I heard needs to be done, I guess to alter the surface tension of water. If you have done that then I you can probably try playing around with paint quantity and water surface size. Also not all enamels are created equal I imagine ..
Good afternoon, I need help, I'm trying to make a swirl or also known as marbeling, I've made great advances, I'm a luthier I would like to paint my guitars by immersion in water, I'll report my advances to simplify 1-) water density: I have already achieved a good density with the following products: CMC, carrageenan and emulsifier (nestle) 2: Paints: I managed to make the paints float and make drawings under these solutions already listed in the previous item, I have already used the following paints, food dyes, water-based paints, acrylic paints and special paints from the pebeo brand made for marbling 3-) I can transfer my drawings perfectly to plain paper or potassium sulfate treated paper, 4-) I need to make this happen on guitars that I have to apply a sealant base, I was told to use the white spray from the brand rust oleum ultracover 2x, I apply it on the wood, however unfortunately, every time I do the immersion in any of the paints the drawings are destroyed and run down the body of the guitar, they just don't stick. Please, I need to know which product to apply under the wood after I have applied the rust oleum base so that the designs remain on the guitar.
By far the best video on swirl painting a guitar! You've been an enormous help in my swirl-endeavours. Thanks a lot! But I do have one question left unanswered: Did you just clear coat over the magic marble paint without sanding? I always sanded through the magic marble paint in no time on my test dummies. But I'm afraid that without sanding, my 2k clear coat won't stick. Can you advise me there? Thx a lot
Well I watched this video and enjoyed it, your approach to talking how you did it worked for me, it was cool. But the thing is its interesting to me because I am a drummer and have been for a ton of years, don't ask how old I am, lol okay 68, but what really also caught my attention was you actually play guitar and it seems were in the same boat kinda, I paint drums and guitars as well but never dipped like you did, which was cool, but I clicked on the other video I watched with the Brian May lead etc and really like that as well, lol so I guess this drummer will subscribe so I can see you do more it was very cool. So thanks and have a good one, maybe we should jam sometime, lol later.
I'm using Magic Marble and getting bubbles in the paint after, the droplets left on the guitar seem to cause it. Do you blow off all the water with the dryer? Have you ever had these droplets bubble up the paint?
I bought some magic marble from the fishing rod place called mud hole about 2 months ago I really want to try this but I need a large (wide) container. You should try using Simtec polyester clear of that instead of a clear urethane...the polyester dries 90% the hardness of glass. also it sands and buffs out like a mirror!(use all the grits from 400 to 3000. you can skip a few like I always do) Most of the pro guitar companies use this. They also make a sealer(sanding sealer they call it) in different shades from clear to gray. One of the tricks is using a HVLP gun with a 2.0 tip or a little larger and mixing the hardener in the correct ratio(all of which and can be found on there site) but the down side is you only have about 25 mins to spray your first few coats otherwise it will harden in the gun..(I wrecked a nice devilbiss gravity feed the first time) so just get a cheap hvlp from tcp global its around 25-35.00 www.simteccoatings.com/Productlist.ivnu (get the 27x6 A18 if you do it) also at the bottom of the page is the MEKP Catalyst Rate Chart to mix up small amounts
I don't have equipment or place to spray with guns at the moment, so I'm stuck with whatever I can brush or spray-can on. I did a 2k finish once in the past (Dupont clear I think), indeed it's super hard and easy to sand flat and buff. I'll keep your suggestions in mind though in case I'm able to switch to spray gun at some point. Thanks!!
This is just Wonderful!, thanks. Now, I have a doubt... what kind of marble paints are you using?, can I try with whatever is available, even the ones offered for kids painting?
I haven't really had problems with putting Magic Marble over stuff. Here the silver is typical hardware store acrylic automotive paint. Compatibility can be an issue once you go to covering the swirl with clearcoat. You definitely need to do some tests on scrap for that
Thinking exactly that, I initially made a transparent plexi pickguard for it. But for some reason it didn't look quite right. The black somehow balances the design out IMO, even though it does cover a big part of the swirl
good point. I try to seal what I can, the cavities are painted with primer and I try to make a little holes in the guitar as possible before dipping. Those that I do make I try to seal with wax to keep water from going in
great vid, but why did you leave the neck on the guitar? surely you would just screw a piece of scrap wood in place of the neck to hold the guitar from
it might not be clearly visible in the video, but this is a neck-through construction, meaning the neck is permanently attached to the body. So I had to use the actual neck :)
HY. Great job! could I ask what is in the water? tap water, nommineral water? any extra add. For the colors, do you suggest a special kind of color (resin, car color ).. any special company you trust in to use their range of colors? thanx a lot.
Can I ask if you used anything to "thicken" the water so the paint floats at the top? I was excited to try trhis process and when I filled a garbage can with water and was adding the paint to the water, it didn't float. There is the Magic Medium for thickening the water but according to the directions I would need to add a couple pounds of the stuff.
Excellent Job, is really amazing to see your work, that make us so happy as a musician. In the future i will build my guitar of dream with colors special and desing. I already know about you. Regards
The bottle of paint used seemed to be an issue with them pouring out so slowly. Any remedy to this or is it not really a big issue? Would putting the paint into a condiment bottle,like a catsup or mustard container resolve this issue? Beauty supply stores have even smaller bottles with small tips on them that may work for a better or easier pour of the paint onto the water surface. If time is critical, then a slow pour from the bottles seems like would be a real handicap. Thanks for posting the video,. It is super interesting to view. I would have thought that you would have made some type of holder that can be attached to the guitar body so that you didn't have to coat the fretboard, as well when using it to hold onto the guitar as you dip it. A typical guitar body is actually fairly heavy to hold onto with just the neck as the source of a handle, I bet.
thanks for the comments. I was too lazy to fumble with replacing the stock bottles, it wasn't too bad with them, though as you say, the flow could probably be optimized. As for the guitar, the neck here is glued to (actually - into) the body, so dipping the neck was the only way to go. With a bolt-on guitar I'd indeed screw a piece of wood in place of the neck and use that as a holder. Funnily enough, I'd say not the weight of the guitar body was an issue, but rather the buoyant force that was trying to push it out of the water when submerged :)
Thank you for this informative video! Gonna try this next week :) one question though: Would I have to sand the guitar first or coat it in any way before dipping it into the water? Or can I just dip it in with the original finish my guitar has?
That depends a bit on what kind of finish is there now. Remember that the swirl can be a little transparent in places - that's why I used silver as a base here, because it works with the other colors. (no sanding after the color coat and before dipping). If swirling over an existing finish I'd probably sand the finish a little to have the swirl paint adhere better - not trying to sand it off, but just to make the original clearcoat matte. Haven't tried doing it like this myself though.. :)
I wasn't a pre-made shellac, I dissolved shellac flakes in alcohol myself (bough them from some luthier supply online shop). I sprayed it using a can that I can fill with liquid then compress the air using a car/bike pump. This wasn't the best solution since the atomization was poor and I got crazy orange peel in the shellac layer that I then had to work around ... Maybe a preval sprayer would have worked better
hmm for some reason I never got a notification from youtube about this comment, sorry. I did try a transparent pickguard, I made one and compared with the black non-transparent one, but I liked the look of the black one better. It does cover a big part of the swirl, yes
Hey! I used DupliColor. SprayMax should be the same or better. Good choice. Just test for compatibility with the swirl paints if you can. (maybe just dip a piece of whatever and then spray it and wait a few minutes before spraying the guitar to see if the paint doesn't form cracks)
Thanks for the reply. I'm a little bit anxious to make a test because 2k clear coat can is wasted if not used immediatly. But well... I guess I won't have any other option... I'll let you know how it turned out. :) Finger crossed...
I know, I was facing the same problem. I think the clear can safely wait a few hours, especially when kept cold (I don't remember the exact numbers). So what I'd do is to have a scrap piece ready at hand, start by spraying a coat on that, wait 15 minutes, if ok - do the guitar. Should give good chance of success. BTW after a coat I'd wait 24h or so and level sand, before doing another coat. Otherwise you'll have texture in the clear. Good luck! :) and waiting to hear about the results!
Hi, today I tried SprayMax 2K clearcoat. I think I can call this a complete... failure ! :))) I got the crazy effect. Well, I just have to start all over again... Positive attitude ! :) I put some photos here : www.theswirlfactory.com/spray-max-il-faut-oublier/
Wow you're right, they're incompatible. Looks like the poly 2k hates the swirl indeed. 8 days should have been plenty time to have the swirl dry. But I see from your page that you had other compatibility problems .. and the right attitude :)
Hola cuál sería el secreto para poder hacer ese tipo de trabajo? Probé con pintura acrílica, el agua a cierta temperatura. Y nunca queda así la pintura. Se va al fondo. Se usa alguna en especial?
I tried on a few plastic things when I was testing this method out. Worked out perfectly fine. As long as what you're dipping is heavier than water, otherwise you'll have to have some means to force it to go in :)
I tried My first Hydro dip on old Peavey Foundation Bass. Gray base coat. Used Majic Marble paints and, well needless to say, Back to the drawing board. Didn't get full coverage and the magic marble bubbled. Any suggestions? Did bubbling occur due to water temp? Rain water,... should not have been a bigg issue.
hmm the paint does create a slightly uneven surface sometimes, especially if it's a bit old. But I don't think I've ever seen something I'd call "bubbles". They formed already on the water surface? I don't expect any chemical incompatibility at this stage, this can be a pain when clearcoating (some lacquers cause the magic marble to wrinkle and crack), but not during the dipping
I want to hydro dip my Ibanez Jem. The colors I want to use is blue, white and black. The guitar is white. I want the base color to be white. Should I sand guitar with 220 sandpaper then primer guitar white then hydro dip with the magic marble paint. BTW. Your guitar hydro dip is the best one I’ve seen so far!!!
thanks! You have a few options for the JEM - Ideally you should probably try to get rid of the factory paint, but that can be a PITA, they're usually very hard. You'd need a heat gun and/or some chemicals. On the other hand I wouldn't be surprised if just sanding the clearcoat evenly (220 should be fine) would get the MM paints to stick. But your idea is probably the best compromise - sand the clear, shoot white primer over that, and swirl.
by itself it's not very durable, the color layer is very thin. You have to put clearcoat on top, and then the durability depends on the clearcoat. If you put automotive 2-part clear the durability is going to be the same as car paint essentially
I don't remember for sure, but less than one 20ml bottle per color. Probably more like 1/3rd of a bottle. So my guess would be in total I used 20-30ml for the guitar.
You said these colors aren’t completely opaque but I’m wanting a black/pink swirl. should I primer black? I thought white so that the pink would be more vibrant but I don’t want to see any of the white really with the end result.
different colors cover differently, I don't think I ever tried pink. In general the colors will just slowly fade, so the pink might grow whiter and the black can go to light gray.. Gray primer might be a good compromise actually. It does depend on your technique, you might end up getting perfect coverage, I got a pretty good result with the strat, in the past I had to dip twice from both sides... Anyway, the standard advice works: prime something smaller and dip that and see what comes out :)
it's fine, though there is an important detail here. Basically, it's not like the guitar stays submerged for a long time, so doesn't really get wet. The body had primer on it and I think the neck had something too, so they were both essentially waterproof. BUT. You have to watch any holes - the water will get in there, stay there and swell the wood. I held off drilling most holes until after the swirl job (pickguard screws, strap buttons etc). The only thing I drilled earlier was the bridge holes - those I plugged, I think with wax, to keep them sealed. I think I forgot to mention all this in the video :/
great work !!! I'm a luthier and I try to swirl or marbeling on guitars, I bought the pebeo marbeling paints, and I got a formula ready for the paints to float easily, but when I apply the paint or background on the guitar and do the dip, the designs run and don't stick to the piece ! I've been trying for almost a year, please what base paint should I use to make the swirl stick to the guitar? thank you very much
hmm that's odd actually, I never had the paint run, even when testing on bare wood or plastic. They tend to stick very well to most surfaces. I do use a solid color primer to have a perfectly flat surface, I use acrylic (I think) automotive primers from the supermarket, nothing fancy. Have you tested on things like (clean) plastic? If it doesn't stick, I'd think there's something wrong with the paint that you're using..
love it, is superbeautifull, love the mix of the colors..., but the top in black is not good idea on this beautifull finish, need to be in acrilic transparent....., but love it....., i will love it in one drum set for me....
you know what, I thought the same - that it'll look better with a transparent pickguard. I actually made both, a transparent one and the black one. But somehow I like the black better, it gives a nice contrasting accent, though it's true it hides quite a bit of the swirl. I kept the other one so maybe one day I'll do a switch for a change :)
What kind of primer did you use? I've tried doing this a few times now using the magic marble paints and it comes out all smudgy and looks like total crap. I'm thinking maybe its the type of primer I used?
I used standard automotive acrylics from the hardware store. I tried gray primer, then I decided silver will form a better base so I shot silver over the primer and dipped that (that's what you see in the vid). Have you tried for example clean plastic? That should work perfectly fine. I did some experiments with aerosol caps, plastic spoons and other small items before starting with whole guitars
I think you can, you just have to prepare the paint. Sanding down to bare wood can be a pain for factory 2K finishes. You basically have three things to worry about: 1. chemical compatibility between existing and new paint (shouldn't be a problem in most cases) 2. adhesion, that the new paint sticks well to the old one and 3. even surface - any defects are going to show in the final result. What I'd do would be to sand the existing paint with something like P320, shoot primer over that, wetsand the primer to P600 and then shoot color (or not) then swirl
Hey I need some help I am using enamel oil based paint but the paint is not spreading nicely around the surface like it does in this video when I add the paint to the water. It's all thick and glumpy and doesn't spread, I am using basic tap water what am I doing wrong? Would appreciate some help
hey! for some reason people using enamels are usually adding borax to the water. here I'm using "magic marble" paints, these work with tap water, enamels I think don't
interesting what you said about using old paint. i think thats what they sell in my country because even the bottles look different and mine seem to dry as soon as they hit the water, wasted about $100 on paints so far because its expensive too a few were even dried out when they got to me. so thinking that must be it. tried putting them in the fridge and water from the fridge and even doing something small is impossible. might have to try the borax/enamel method but that looks easier and its a nice even swirl.wish i could my paint to flow like that.
I never tried the borax method, but people do get very good results with it. If even small pieces are impossible to do then it's definitely something with the paint. It sometimes dries a bit fast, but for ~smartphone-sized objects there shouldn't be any issue at all.
it's not ordinary paint, most paints wouldn't float on the surface like this. I used paint that was specifically made for this kind of thing, they're sold as "magic marble" paint.
I'm having a problem finding the right size container (70cmx40cm = 27.5"x16.7",) where did you get your container?, It looks like we are dipping the same solid body, Fender Ultra Stratocaster & at 18.5" total height would need at least a 21"-25" Depth, any suggestions.....🎸🎸
I also found it tricky to get a good container. This one here IIRC is something meant for storing clothes or bed linen.. I think I got it in IKEA or something similar. That said, I now think mine should be deeper, it's hard to submerge a whole guitar body without hitting the bottom.
@@baigle3848 for the clearcoat I only have one advice really: test on scrap. Dip a small piece of wood and then wait a day or two and shoot clearcoat on. I think I waited something like that, maybe a bit longer. Don't touch the swirl with any kind of sandpaper, you'll immediately take it off as it's very thin. For the clear if you want a mirror finish you're going have to sand it in most cases. Which is going to be tricky since the swirl coat is very uneven... Honestly the only way I can imagine this working is with several coats of clear and light sanding in between. Its easy to mess this up though.
@@traqqThis will be my 3rd attempt at swirling, my 1st container was too small with not enough paint, faded & transparent as you stated, 2nd attempt the container was too large and took over 3min to fill the water surface with paint therefore it started to dry (what a mess, I dipped twice hoping for the best, did not work well) I appreciate your advice, I'm using Guitar Lacquer from StewMac and yes I'll be very careful , 3rd time's a charm right....🎸🎸
I had the same problem but didn't manage to get much improvement by messing with water temp. This here is cold tap water, I haven't checked the exact temperature. The trick seems to be to have fresh paint and to go quickly, those are the main things that allowed me to do it before the paint dried
@@TraqGuitars thanks. You had 3min. on your clock. Mine locked up less than that. I am going to sand it back down. Then try when the weather is warmer. So the water is warmer.
