# Guitar Swirl Painting



## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

I ended up watching about 20 of these videos last night showing guitar bodies being swirl painted. It could be old hat, but I wondered if anybody has tried this technique? I was fascinated by it .

[video=youtube;pk39PRZ1JhQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk39PRZ1JhQ[/video]


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

I may be completely crazy, but I _think _someone was doing this on this forum out in woodstock, ontario.


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## 4Aaron GE (Jul 12, 2009)

Wasn't me. Maybe it was the Frankenstein Guitar Works guy that moved away?


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## skorpian34 (Apr 25, 2013)

It fascinates me too. No two swirls are alike. Someone even swirled a pedal. I may try that if I ever mod my boss-ds1.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

skorpian34 said:


> It fascinates me too. No two swirls are alike. Someone even swirled a pedal. I may try that if I ever mod my boss-ds1.


I'm dying to give the swirl a try. I've got lots of extra bodies, nothing but fear & common sense to hold me back.......


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

I think it looks awesome (usually).


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## Erich (Apr 23, 2013)

lol it's ME!  I do this.. I am currently prepping a guitar to swirl, not sure if i wanna go black and white, or black and signal green, like the steve vai ones. But i can post pics when it's done.

If you would like help, let me know. Cheers!


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## Erich (Apr 23, 2013)

Here's the original Thread i posted a while back.

http://www.guitarscanada.com/showthread.php?56096-Luthier-in-Woodstock


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

Erich, have you ever come up with a way to do neck-thru guitars? ie a proper way to protect the neck/upper fretboard?


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## Erich (Apr 23, 2013)

Haven't done one of those yet.. But if i had to i'd just tape off the neck and fingerboard with painters masking tape, and be extra careful to make the seams tight and straight. 

OR, if you wanted the entire body swirled, I'd try to find a deeper bucket, and tape off the fingerboard, remove the nut, and all hardware, and swirl the whole thing at once. 

If you couldn't find a deep enough bucket (I use a rain-barrel) then you could make a shallow pool that is long enough for the entire body to be submerged under the water at a shallow angle. This would be more difficult and would take some practice to get right before trying to do the actual swirl on the instrument... 

I seriously recommend trying at least half a dozen test swirls with scrap wood to get the hang of it before you try with your guitar.


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## skorpian34 (Apr 25, 2013)

I thought Steve used lochness green


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## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

Has anybody done any of their pedals using this technique?
I always wanted to make my crybaby a wee bit more psychedelic


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## JeremyP (Jan 10, 2012)

Sorry Eric I meant to like your comment about trying first with scrap and my fat fingers hit the thumbs down :-(

You definitely have to do it multiple times with scrap. I have done a few pedals like this.


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## Erich (Apr 23, 2013)

Sorry for the delay. started in uni last week and got bogged down with readings already! lol

Far as i know steve vai used what Humbrol calls "Signal Green". This is the best distributor i have found for Humbrol Enamels that work incredibly well for swirling.. It's at the bottom of this page: https://pmhansen.esamco.com/?act=search&cat=43500&subcat=&start=75

People swirl alllll kinds of things.. Pedals, instruments, car panels, picture frames, pretty much anything that can be painted and submerged in water.. Hell girls have even mastered this for doing their fingernails! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7bwL2S7auk

And no worries on the down vote.. lol.. i was bound to get one eventually! hehehehe


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

Erich said:


> Here's the original Thread i posted a while back.
> 
> http://www.guitarscanada.com/showthread.php?56096-Luthier-in-Woodstock



Do you know this means??? My brain worked for once!!! God that felt good.


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## Lola (Nov 16, 2014)

Very cool but I prefer just one color.


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## POGART2000 (Feb 15, 2015)

I do something similar with a technique using fluid acrylics. pogart2000 on youtube (or www.peterowengoodale.com for my fine art site.) if you want to see the finished guitars and basses or have any questions. 
Pete


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Look up Herc Fede (sp?), out of this swirled, and ben eller for awesome examples of swirls.


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