need your help guys in obtaining info on this 'smear' finish

[Bernardkk]

hi guys
havent posted here for quite a while,so do pardon me if i have posted this topic in the wrong section..all apologies in advance.

i need a big favour form u guys.i need ur help on this.i am currently doing my own custom guitar and now its in the finishing stage.
i need to ask u guys whether u have seen JAMES TYLER BURNING WATER GUITAR.have u guys seen the finish?its like a metallic smear ..any one of u knows how its done? suggestions? views?
http://www.tylerguitars.com/burning_water.htm

in some ways,its like a jem swirl went out of control!!!

[Serratus]

Strange finish - it looks to me like he's either poured something like paint stripper over the finished (painted) guitar and just scraped off some of the paint, or sanded through the paint with a power sander or grinder. Either way it looks like it's just different layers of top-coat, primer and wood showing through in different places - hard to tell exactly though without seeing it in the flesh!

[Two hands31]

I also thought it was just parts of the finish stripped off, but then I noticed he mentioned it's metallic...

[darren wilson]

If James Tyler himself can't remember how he did the finish, how is anyone else supposed to figure it out, other than by guessing or by trial-and-error? I think you'd need a really good look at the instrument (in person) to even hazard a guess.

[Serratus]

How about if you painted the body in metallic silver first, then that yellow, then the red, and then sanded back through the red/yellow in certain places to let the metallic show again. I think that would work, although you'd have to be careful not to sand through the metallic aswell....