Book Quartet Bodies

I started out by modeling the encyclopedia cover in CAD.  This shows the body cavity and where the neck will pass through. 

I transferred the measurements to a scrap piece of plywood to use as a template. 

The template worked fairly well.  Not perfectly, but certainly well enough for my purposes.  The wax paper beneath the template was to block the modpodge from hitting the cover.  More on that in a future post.

Book Quartet Necks

The same friend who gave me the encyclopedias also gifted me a slab of poplar

Since these guitars will only have three strings, I'm hoping that the poplar will be strong enough not to bow.  They will be through neck guitars meaning that the neck will run the entire length of the body.  The headstock, neck, and body will all be the same piece of wood.  The fretboards will be walnut.

Here are the four necks rough cut to size.

Book Quartet Bodies

An old friend gave me four volumes of an old leatherbound set of encyclopedias.  The other volumes are lost to time.

I decided to turn them into guitars!

I attempted to clean and condition them.  It sort of worked.  They didn't clean up as much as I'd have liked, but enough that I was happy with the results.