Ibanez Rg Swirl Dip

[Iron Hawk]

Here is a project I worked on over christmas while I was stuck at home (college > home).

I picked up an abused RG 270 DX at the local guitar shop for $20 and then had some fun with it, take a look:

http://www.gregzenger.com/hosted/ProjectGuitar/1.jpg

http://www.gregzenger.com/hosted/ProjectGuitar/2.jpg

http://www.gregzenger.com/hosted/ProjectGuitar/3.jpg

http://www.gregzenger.com/hosted/ProjectGuitar/4.jpg

http://www.gregzenger.com/hosted/ProjectGuitar/5.jpg

Edited July 21, 2006 by Iron Hawk

[thegarehanman]

The swirl and burst look great. Perhaps it's not my style, but great none the less. Do you plan to buff it out a bit more?

[Iron Hawk]

The top two pictures were taken before the clear coat.

I do plan to buff it out a bit more, I just dont have the time or place to do it right now. When I am at school, its hard to find the tools, and right now my folks just moved so the workshop is a complete mess. Whats important is that the guitar plays beautifully, a few light surface scratches that can only be seen when the light is right isnt concerning me too much.

When I take it apart to buff I think I am going to scallop the high frets too.

[Ben]

$20 from a shop?

How abused was it?

Looks fantastic- I often dislike these swirl finishes when theyre all multicoloured and gaudy, but yours looks great, the colours work really well together.

[Slabbefusk]

$20 from a shop?

How abused was it?

Looks fantastic- I often dislike these swirl finishes when theyre all multicoloured and gaudy, but yours looks great, the colours work really well together.

Yupp, I like swirls that are only like 2-3 colors like this one. It's really hot.

[Inisheer]

I love swirls! That looks great. One question though-I've seen tutorials on how to do swirls but they required a lot of materials. You said you just moved and don't have much of a workshop, so is there an easier way you did this?

[Iron Hawk]

Well, the swirl part was done before the move, but it really wasnt hard. I first attempted to do swirls like the Jem DNAs, minus the blood. I couldnt ever get a nice smooth blend.

How i did it:

1. Paint guitar orange.

2. Using bursting technique, bursted red around it and painted the back red.

3. Fill big tub with water and and plenty of boarx soap.

4. dip plastic spoon into black oil paint and drizzle it over the surface of the water. it will float and spread out.

5. if the image on the surface of the water looks good, plunge the guitar down in, hold it in, and blow on the surface of the water to create a hole in the paint to pull the guitar back up through.

(now the fun part)

6. wet paint will be all over your guitar, as well as some water. We need to get the paint to dry without it running. I walked all around my garage for about 20 minutes, constantly changing the orientation of the body, so that if any run was starting, gravity would constantly be pulling it back in a new direction. This worked well.

7. Lots of clear coat, then some sanding, then lots of clear coat then sanding and fine sanding.

In my experimentation, getting more than once color on the surface of the water to look good is difficult. Different colors tend to be different consistancies, and even the temperatures of the water and paints changes the way they sit on the water. sometimes the paint doesnt spread out, and that causes a glob on the guitar, which will run while drying, which looks bad in my opinion. I found that by only placing one color on the surface of the water, i could control the paint better. If you put paint on the water, and it doesnt look the way you want, clear it off with some pieces of newspaper. and try again. Took me almost 20 trys before i was happy with the guitar, and quite honestly I think i got lucky because its nearly flawless.

Dipping the guitar is not easy, wood floats and you have to fight to keep it under water while you clear the surface, i recomend having a friend help you with this part. also to get a smooth look, you want to pass the guitar into the water and a close to constant speed, and you dont want it to bob, if it bobs, part will get coated twice and doesnt look too good. this is also why you have to clear off the surface of the water before pulling it back out. I screwed a temporary neck made from a 2x4 to hold whil i diped it. also used the temp. neck to clamp in a vice for drying.

I needed to use alot of clear coat to raise the surface enough so that when I sanded down the raised black parts would still be under the clear, I wanted a smooth surface, not a textured one.

How abused was it? well the neck was in good shape, got lucky on that one, the body had some chips and cracks, the only part of the electronics that was usable was the 5-way switch, needed tuners and some parts to the floyd rose. you can see some pictures here:

http://www.gregzenger.com/hosted/ProjectGuitar/

It was a guitar sitting in the basement under a pile of other dead guitars being used for parts. Most of the usable parts were gone, though Im sure I could have sold the neck on ebay for atleast $60 and maybe $20 for the body. I have gotten to know the guys at the store pretty well, and im kinda known for not buying anything at the sticker price, always got to talk it down.

[Ben]

Thanks for the pics

$20 really is a good deal for that!

[Mackenzie]

lol how nice of them to give you off cuts of the strings

but yeh $20 dollars for that is amazing