Making a Huntress

Kevin Chilcott

Luthier

MAKING A 'HUNTRESS'
(21.02.03)

This section has only just been started. It may seem a little disjointed at some stages.....
I am planning to go through the stages 'as I go - one at a time' and then at the end edit it all, adding particular points, pictures and references I may have missed.

Please Treat this Section as Incomplete.

For more info about this particular guitar please go to the Medusa Junior Custom page.
Hopefully the end result of the project will look 'something like' the guitar above.

PLEASE NOTE
Disclaimer.
All I'm going to be doing is to give you the information that you need to be able to construct something with your own hands using both hand tools, hand-held power tools and some Industrial type tools when necessary..... I will Not be responsible for any disasters during the project(s) and I will Not be responsible for any injuries that may occur - although I have cut myself on countless occasions over the years, I am still fully intact (touch wood), and if you are careful and use tools correctly you should have no problems on that score. If you have any doubts, please refer to the relevant manuals or seek advice from a professional near by. I'm sure they wouldn't mind lending you a hand.
Take Care
and Mind Your Fingers.
( Tools are Potentially, Extremely Dangerous and can cause Serious Injury or Death.)

YOU MUST WEAR the Appropriate Protective Equipment when using all tools.....
Especially when using Machine Tools - including Ear & Eye Protection, Dust Mask
or Respirator.

Kev.

Important Note.
Before you consider starting this project you really need some sort of
experience with tools including hand tools, machine tools and working
with materials. If you do not have the required knowledge, you will need
help from someone that has.

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THE MATERIALS

The Wood for the Guitar

The Huntress guitar is primarily made of Mahogany, having a Mahogany body and neck. The fingerboard is Rosewood and she has an Ebony Head-face.
The Scale length is 24 3/4".
She is based on my original Medusa Junior design from the 1980s, and the later
Medusa Junior Custom as Above.

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Due to the 'peculiarities' of the Medusa Junior neck joint, which only allows for a bridge and middle pickup, the neck joint has to be re-designed to allow for a neck position pickup. This concept will be easier to understand when there are pix of the patterns available which will hopefully be up on the site soon.....

Medusa Junior Patterns

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The Body is cut from a Mahogany blank - 1 3/4" (45mm) thick by 13" (330mm) wide by 19" (480mm) long.
The Neck is cut from a Mahogany blank..... 3" (75mm) by 3" (75mm) by 36" (920mm) long.
( This will do 2 necks.)
The Fingerboard is cut from a Rosewood blank.....
The Head-face is cut from an Ebony blank.....

The Wood for the Patterns

1/8" (3mm) and 1/4" (6mm) or 3/8" (9mm) Pattern Ply (if possible) is needed to make the Patterns.
Slightly thicker ply can be used if what I've suggested is not available.
Pattern Ply differs from normal ply as it is very high quality and has many thin laminates. Normal ply is fine if you have it available, but patterns do not last as long when made from the normal variety of ply.

The 1/8" (3mm) ply is used to make the initial Templates which are made by hand.
The final Patterns are routed from the Templates into the 1/4" (6mm) or 3/8" (9mm) ply.
( Hopefully this will all become clear as things progress.)

NB..... The 'mm' sizes are approximate.

At the end of the project I am hoping to have full scale drawings with notes available.

Scale Length & Fingerboard Taper

I'll deal with the details of Scale Lengths and Jigs to be able to cut them accurately in a later Section.
I'll also be looking at the most popular Fingerboard Tapers..... The change in width from Top Nut on down to the End of the Fingerboard - and Jigs to make those as well.

For the time being, the important thing to understand is that for this particular guitar a 24 3/4" scale length will be used.
Essentially this is the distance between - the line of the 'Top Nut' and the line of the 'Bridge', moreover
the last point of contact where the Strings "break" over the Top Nut and the first point of contact with the Bridge saddles.
The positions of the frets are calculated by a mathematical formula, but there are jigs and patterns available that can simplify the process of working this out.
The position of the 12th fret on the fingerboard is half the scale length (12 3/8") and therefore half the distance from the Top Nut to the Bridge.
( Another common Scale Length is 25 1/2", and in this case, the distance from the top nut to the 12th fret would be 12 3/4".)

The guitar is designed around the scale length and the number of frets (most commonly 21, 22 or 24) and the positions of the bridge and pickups and in consequence the controls etc are all governed by this.
Also related to this topic is the balance of the guitar and how it will hang on a strap. Normally this is not too much of a problem, but must be considered even at this stage.

I will go into the Scale Length in more detail later, but for the time being to help work out patterns etc.....

The Scale Length is 24 3/4"..... which is the distance from the line of the Top Nut to the line of the Bridge.

The Top Nut is 1 11/16" across.

The Fingerboard has 22 frets, and from the Top Nut to the Body End is 18 3/16" long. It is 1 11/16" wide at the Top Nut and 2 1/4" wide at the Body End.

With these dimensions you can get a feel for the way the guitar will be, and it's worth at this stage making just a paper or cardboard template of the fingerboard.

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Most Important
The Centre-Line must be visible on all the components at all times until final sanding.
The Centre-Line is the Most Important Part of the whole project as it helps 'line' the parts up.

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THE HUNTRESS BODY

The picture above shows the Huntress body marked out on a board of Mahogany. The pattern used is that for the Medusa Junior, but an extension has been added to allow for the different neck joint needed for the additional pickup(s)..... which have not been marked in yet !

The Huntress body has been cut out using a bandsaw with a 1/4" (6mm) blade, which allows cutting around tight corners.
The body has been cut slightly oversize to allow for 'trimming back' to the pattern by using a flush cutting router bit.