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
I thinks this is the best video that i've found so fat about the topic. All of them are just people dipping the guitar in and not a single explanation of what is happening or what possible problems you may face during the process. Well done and thank you!
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!!
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
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.
@@jmack619 I use epoxy sometimes as a pore filler. Haven't found/tried anything that you could use as an actual finish. Do you have something specific in mind?
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.
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.
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 ..
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?
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
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 :/
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.
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..
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
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 :)
It depends on the chemical compatilibity of the varnish with the swirl paints. For example when I tried nitro I got some crackling, but nitro over a "blocking coat" of shellac worked. I'm afraid the only good answer I have is "test on a scrap piece of wood"..
Thanks! Looks like it wasn't terribly important, I didn't do any tricks to get a particular temperature. Except pouring cold water IIRC. I think any reasonable "room temperature" should work fine. Might influence the speed at which you have to work a little.
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.
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'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?
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 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
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
@@TraqGuitars it came out good. I'm making like small wood table lamps for my niece and nephew. I rostered out a really cool pattern and put led light strips in them, then I filled it in with a clear epoxy resin. I need to primer them, then I'm going to dip them. I bought all the magic marble paints months ago, just trying to get them done since I'm not working right now. It came out aweasome bro, good job. I've never done but watched a million videos. Yours came out the best. Do I need to light sand the primer before I dip it, or just dip it?
@@jeffwerner1291 I'd sand the primer with something around P600 only if you have surface imperfections that you need to get out with the primer coat. Like here I had tons of small things like spot-fills etc that I had to hide by doing a few coats of primer (and sanding in between). But once your primer coat is smooth (which might be the first one in your case) I'd just dip it. Cool project with the lamps! Cool that you like my swirl, I never really thought it was something special, the video was just meant to explain the method, not to show off the result :)
@@TraqGuitars Cool, thanks for the tips. I've never done it , so I've looked at ALOT of videos. Yours definatly came out the best, video was extremely informative and detailed. I had to sub. I've seen alot of people do it with spray paint and it doesnt come out that good. I ordered those magic marble paints right before Christmas of Amazon. I hope their still good. Anyway, excellent job and keep up the good work.
yes, they're 20ml. I think one would be enough for the whole guitar, except you need a few colors :) in other words - if you're getting several colors, one bottle of each will be enough for sure.
yea, in general it works best if you have a solid color base (primer -> sand flat -> shoot color -> swirl) because: 1. the swirl will not always cover 100% so you could have some wood showing through and 2. if the surface is not perfectly flat you'll run into issues when trying to level and polish the subsequent clearcoat
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 :)
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.
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
Hi, first thing thank you so much for the video! I tried to do it myself at home but without success ... The colors did not look over the water properly ... (I used: Americana Gloss Enamels Calypso Blue) Did you use anything in the water or the colors are not good?
Hey! If you use enamels you need to add borax to the water. Or so I've heard - I never tried that method myself. But they won't work with just water. Magic marbles do, but that's a different kind of paint from enamel.
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
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
I had zero problems getting the clear to adhere, the only thing is the swirl sometimes has some texture and you have to somehow get rid of it for the clear coat to be flat. The swirl layer is super thin though, touching that with any abrasive is risking sand-through. So the best way I found is to first shoot just a little clear, level that (possibly going through to the color in places) and then build the clearcoat. But I can't say I have a good process for clearcoating down.
What is best temperature ambient and water temperature to do magic marble paint? Also, would wipeon poly over a gray base coat work well? Would the Magic Marble adhere to it?
I haven't played with temperature that much, I guess the colder the more working time you have before the paint dries on the surface. I had over 25 degrees in the room when dipping this guitar, though used cold tap water. As for wipe on poly, I never tried so can't guarantee :) but why not dip the base coat directly? The paint should adhere to primer fine. You can always dip a small block of wood as a test, that's what I always do when trying new paint combinations.
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 :)
Jus got a start kit for Christmas, gonna give this style a shot. Great video, just a few questions. What kind of primer did you use on the guitar and did you sand the acryllic paint at all or just the clear coat? Overall great video and awesome paint job.
thanks! the primer was standard automotive primer from a home improvement store. I did sand that, but then no sanding of the color coat and no sanding of the swirl - only level sanding of the clearcoat layers. I might have scuffed some spots lightly before the clear, the swirl paint leaves quite a bit of texture behind, but on the other hand it's super-thin and you'll go through almost immediately if you touch it with sandpaper..
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.
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
thanks :) if it's a thinline with an f-hole I'd be careful, the water is going to flow into the chamber, potentially creating a mess. Concerning clearcoat - my experiments show that nitro reacts with the magic marble paints in some way. Can dissolve or crackle. I used nitro once but whith a barrier coat of shellac in between. Here I used 2k clear from a spray can, that's actually acrylic. Polyurethane should also work but I'd test on a small scrap piece first.
Thanks a lot. I will then build a "simple" Telecaster rather than a Thinline. I love this swirl effect above all. Concerning the clearcoat, i'll try the poly. I'll tell you if it worked ! A last question: when you take the guitar out of the water, did you have bubbles on it ? If it was the case, what did you do to remove them ?
great, do let me know how it turned out! Re bubbles - if the paint is fresh there is little to no bubbles or the paint gunking-up in places. I don't think I had any, when it dries it anyhow flattens out mostly. A word of warning however - you'll have to have quite a bit of build with the clearcoat because "flattens out" doesn't really mean clearcoat-quality flat. When you go to levelling the clearcoat you'll see a lot of unevenness from the texture in the swirl. I'd probably level one of the coats completely, sanding through in the high spots, such that the subsequent coats go on a really flat surface. It will be up to you to play around with this :)
@@anitamarskamp no, it's the name of the substance: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac it sometimes goes by the name "french polish" as that is a technique of applying it.
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
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
Thanks! It is quite rewarding when you manage to pull it off, isn't in? Good luck!
I thinks this is the best video that i've found so fat about the topic. All of them are just people dipping the guitar in and not a single explanation of what is happening or what possible problems you may face during the process. Well done and thank you!
thanks man, it was exactly my intention to share the lessons I learned after a few (mostly failed) attempts :)
Very well done!! You did a great job!
The body of the guitar looks so amazing!
Instablaster
Thanks ! That's the best video on hydrodipping a guitar that I've seen. Beautiful job, well done !
Thank you for the advice to clear the paint when you pull it out.
it helps if you don't want a double swirl :)
Hey could you tell me what kind of paint you're using I've seen several comments asking the same but I never got an answer
@@stephenbridges3894 it looks like magic marble paint from Kreul, i'm having a hard time finding them myself
This video is great. It's really simple and helpful. I did a swirl on my wah pedal by following the steps in this video and it turned out great!
awesome, happy to hear that! :D
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!!
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
Grab job thanks for taking the time to make your video
Neck through! How difficult it's been. Beautiful!
Nice job giving us the underwater view. Very cool.
had a gopro laying around and thought .. why not try a different camera angle? :)
Very helpful hints and your design is killer ! Thank you !
Damn that looks epic! Great video!
man, super cool video
the camera at the bottom of the container was gold!
1:12...reminds me of a scene from Breaking Bad. Lol. Very nice. Thank you for sharing.
lol that's exactly what I was thinking
Nice upload!!! An cute assistant, guitar turned out beautiful👍😁
thanks ;)
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.
thanks man, I've been playing long before I got into building actually :) appreciate the kind words. rock on! \m/
That looks so awesome
Thank you! So far this is the only video I could find that mentioned the finish
Yea, I also had a hard time finding info about finish compatibility - that's why I had to experiment myself. Figured I'd share :)
@@TraqGuitars I was thinking about using 2 part epoxy. What say you.. Great job
@@jmack619 I use epoxy sometimes as a pore filler. Haven't found/tried anything that you could use as an actual finish. Do you have something specific in mind?
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.
I wanna do it with the "Nevermind" Blue and gray colors, similar to this one
Hey bro are you using oil base paint or water base please let me know thanks
Fabulous!! I see having a go in my future!
Thanks man!! Nice swirl and video!!
Cool. I may try that on one of my guitars...maybe.
Thanks for this video, very helpful! Also the guitar looked awesome 👍
You'd achieved such a beautiful result with that mix of colors. Do you have any video playing this guitar?
thanks! here's a demo video that I did: ruclips.net/video/qdi1f9qZTh4/видео.html I play it on a few other videos on the channel too ;)
Great job man that guitar looks hot
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.
This is awesome!!! Great video too.
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 ..
yeah, I used borax also. may be I've just to play around like you say. thanks anyway, cheers.
Looks fantastic!
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?
the "magic marble" brand that I used appears to be made by C.KREUL, there's another one by Marabu that I tried and that works similarily
Very nice! Thanks for sharing.
Radically well done!!! Thanks for the details!!!
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
Got it. Thx.
cool info...thnx for sharing......so does the water damage the guitar/wood... like as swelling or the neck bending later....?
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 :/
Wonderfull job man!!! 😮 Have you a type if paint and name? Thanks
I clicked this because you had your lady holding an electric hair dryer over the water.
not really dangerous unless your standing in the water. :D
Not really dangerous even if you are standing in the water either....
@@holleyciggy That would be some serious multitasking!! Dangerous in Salt water !
Is the water temperature key? I am wondering if I have the water too hot? I noticed my brand new marbling
paint was happy to sink!!!!
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.
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..
That is just exquisite!!!
Did u use borax, also what was water temp.
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
Piotr Traczyk okay, I'll try it that way. Thanks a lot for your advise!
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 :)
Cool video and good job. And what kind of varnish should be used to cover such paints?
It depends on the chemical compatilibity of the varnish with the swirl paints. For example when I tried nitro I got some crackling, but nitro over a "blocking coat" of shellac worked. I'm afraid the only good answer I have is "test on a scrap piece of wood"..
@@TraqGuitars thanks
Awesome color choices
thanks :) It took me a while to decide on the colors, but I'm very happy with the end result
Very good and informative video, was the temperatura of the water important?
Thanks! Looks like it wasn't terribly important, I didn't do any tricks to get a particular temperature. Except pouring cold water IIRC. I think any reasonable "room temperature" should work fine. Might influence the speed at which you have to work a little.
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.
I used the "magic marble" brand paints - those work with ordinary tap water :)
thanx a lot. I will try!
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?
What type of paint is magic marble paint? is it enamel, is it acrylic? i can't see on their website.
thanks for actually describing what you're doing, and not just show it while playing some cheesy music like EVERYONE ELSE does!!!! so cool!!!!
Well the point of this video was "how to" and not "look what I did" :) glad you like it!
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?
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.. :)
Great vid - did you use borax in the water for this? Nearly all of the otherones I have seen add borax for the surface tension.
thanks :) you don't need borax with magic marble paints. A lot of people use enamels and in that case - yes, you need to add borax.
What paint did you use for the chrome color? I really want to make sure the paints are compatible with that so I don't get any bad results. Thanks!
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
When you say you put on a coat of shellac did you brush or spray that on and what product did you use..
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
How much paint did you use
Came out really nice. Good job. Did you put borax in the water?
thanks! I didn't have to use borax, the magic marble paints don't require that, they work with tap water
@@TraqGuitars it came out good. I'm making like small wood table lamps for my niece and nephew. I rostered out a really cool pattern and put led light strips in them, then I filled it in with a clear epoxy resin. I need to primer them, then I'm going to dip them. I bought all the magic marble paints months ago, just trying to get them done since I'm not working right now. It came out aweasome bro, good job. I've never done but watched a million videos. Yours came out the best. Do I need to light sand the primer before I dip it, or just dip it?
@@jeffwerner1291 I'd sand the primer with something around P600 only if you have surface imperfections that you need to get out with the primer coat. Like here I had tons of small things like spot-fills etc that I had to hide by doing a few coats of primer (and sanding in between). But once your primer coat is smooth (which might be the first one in your case) I'd just dip it. Cool project with the lamps!
Cool that you like my swirl, I never really thought it was something special, the video was just meant to explain the method, not to show off the result :)
@@TraqGuitars Cool, thanks for the tips. I've never done it , so I've looked at ALOT of videos. Yours definatly came out the best, video was extremely informative and detailed. I had to sub. I've seen alot of people do it with spray paint and it doesnt come out that good. I ordered those magic marble paints right before Christmas of Amazon. I hope their still good. Anyway, excellent job and keep up the good work.
Nice finish! How much/many bottles of paint did you end up using? I believe those are 20 ml bottles?
yes, they're 20ml. I think one would be enough for the whole guitar, except you need a few colors :) in other words - if you're getting several colors, one bottle of each will be enough for sure.
Did you have to prime the guitar first? Any kind of wood primer? Looks great!
yea, in general it works best if you have a solid color base (primer -> sand flat -> shoot color -> swirl) because: 1. the swirl will not always cover 100% so you could have some wood showing through and 2. if the surface is not perfectly flat you'll run into issues when trying to level and polish the subsequent clearcoat
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 :)
Great video
What product do you put in the water so the paint doesn't mix?
with these "magic marble" paints you don't need to add anything. They work with ordinary tap water
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.
Very cool, I’d like to try this with drum shells
Can we use marbu marbel paint. Magic isn't available in my country.
I never tried buy if I were you I'd buy some Marabu and check. I suspect it's the same thing or very similar
Very nice!
Wow, great job
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
Such a helpful video! Thank you
Hello, what kind of paint is that?
I'm trying this but whenever I do, some of the paint doesn't stick and the primer is visible. Am I not using enough paint?
Do u need a heater? I have seen videos that do both. Guitar looks sick!!!!!! I want to do this to my Ibanez!
hmm a heater to heat up what? the water? I had everything at room temperature all the time, no need for extra heat. Give it a try, it's great fun!
Hi, first thing thank you so much for the video! I tried to do it myself at home but without success ... The colors did not look over the water properly ... (I used: Americana Gloss Enamels Calypso Blue) Did you use anything in the water or the colors are not good?
Hey! If you use enamels you need to add borax to the water. Or so I've heard - I never tried that method myself. But they won't work with just water. Magic marbles do, but that's a different kind of paint from enamel.
@@traqq tnx bro 🤙
Thats pretty damn cool
Will plain acrylic paints work as well?
not like this, with different paint you'd need to put something in the water to make them float, or do some other tricks.
So do you seal the cavities and all the holes in the guitar prior or do you just let it get waterlogged
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
Do you have to prepare the guitar or can you paint over the existing paint job ?
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
@@TraqGuitars awesome bro I appreciate the response
4:33 Excalibur! Love the finish, wish i had a bunch of old guitars to try this
Do you have to use an abrasive on the swirl before clear coating so it will adhere or can you spray clear straight onto the swirl?
I had zero problems getting the clear to adhere, the only thing is the swirl sometimes has some texture and you have to somehow get rid of it for the clear coat to be flat. The swirl layer is super thin though, touching that with any abrasive is risking sand-through. So the best way I found is to first shoot just a little clear, level that (possibly going through to the color in places) and then build the clearcoat. But I can't say I have a good process for clearcoating down.
I'm so hypper , cuz this guy is way to chill
What is best temperature ambient and water temperature to do magic marble paint? Also, would wipeon poly over a gray base coat work well? Would the Magic Marble adhere to it?
I haven't played with temperature that much, I guess the colder the more working time you have before the paint dries on the surface. I had over 25 degrees in the room when dipping this guitar, though used cold tap water. As for wipe on poly, I never tried so can't guarantee :) but why not dip the base coat directly? The paint should adhere to primer fine. You can always dip a small block of wood as a test, that's what I always do when trying new paint combinations.
@@TraqGuitars thanks for getting back to me!
Very very nice
How did you stop the paint drying on the surface?
I had to do the operation fast enough so the paint wouldn't dry before I dipped the guitar.
Excellent 👍
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 :)
Jus got a start kit for Christmas, gonna give this style a shot. Great video, just a few questions. What kind of primer did you use on the guitar and did you sand the acryllic paint at all or just the clear coat? Overall great video and awesome paint job.
thanks! the primer was standard automotive primer from a home improvement store. I did sand that, but then no sanding of the color coat and no sanding of the swirl - only level sanding of the clearcoat layers. I might have scuffed some spots lightly before the clear, the swirl paint leaves quite a bit of texture behind, but on the other hand it's super-thin and you'll go through almost immediately if you touch it with sandpaper..
Que tinta vc usa para fazer essa pintura? ?
Hi sir I would like to ask what chemical you use in the painting process? just ordinary paint?
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.
is this water heated or cold?
Type of paint and primer do you use thanks
Love the vid
I used automotive aerosol paint (I presume acrylic) for both primer and color underneath the swirl
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
It's a wonderful job ! I'll do it on me Telecaster Thinline. However, what kind of clearcoat did you use: nitrocellulose or polyuréthane ?
Thanks !
thanks :) if it's a thinline with an f-hole I'd be careful, the water is going to flow into the chamber, potentially creating a mess. Concerning clearcoat - my experiments show that nitro reacts with the magic marble paints in some way. Can dissolve or crackle. I used nitro once but whith a barrier coat of shellac in between. Here I used 2k clear from a spray can, that's actually acrylic. Polyurethane should also work but I'd test on a small scrap piece first.
Thanks a lot. I will then build a "simple" Telecaster rather than a Thinline. I love this swirl effect above all. Concerning the clearcoat, i'll try the poly. I'll tell you if it worked ! A last question: when you take the guitar out of the water, did you have bubbles on it ? If it was the case, what did you do to remove them ?
great, do let me know how it turned out! Re bubbles - if the paint is fresh there is little to no bubbles or the paint gunking-up in places. I don't think I had any, when it dries it anyhow flattens out mostly. A word of warning however - you'll have to have quite a bit of build with the clearcoat because "flattens out" doesn't really mean clearcoat-quality flat. When you go to levelling the clearcoat you'll see a lot of unevenness from the texture in the swirl. I'd probably level one of the coats completely, sanding through in the high spots, such that the subsequent coats go on a really flat surface. It will be up to you to play around with this :)
Brilliant.
Wow! Great! What is shellac please?
it's a type of alcohol-based finish. Has the unique feature of being compatible with almost all other finishes so can be used under, between etc
@@TraqGuitars Thank you!! :) Is this a brandname ? It's a bit hard to find were I live.
@@anitamarskamp no, it's the name of the substance: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac it sometimes goes by the name "french polish" as that is a technique of applying it.
@@traqq Super, thank you :)
I have experimented with this with good and bad results. Do you have recommendations for water temp/air temp/humidity?
cold water
Water needs to b 80 degrees
How much corn starch per gallon of water? or liter of water?
Nothing :) magic marble paints work with plain tap water, no need for additives
Sir can you tell me
Which paint using swirl and anyone added thinner....
it was magic marble paint, no thinner
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