Babicz Guitars

[longhouse]

http://www.babiczsignature.com/index.shtml

Continually adjustable (on the fly) neck. Crazy soundboard mounted, fan pattern string anchors. Nice tone woods...

File under revolutionary?
Or 'now for something completely different'.
Or 'what is that thing?'

I just know I want one -and I've wanted one for a long time. I'm curious as to what the instrument builders and technicians here think about these curious, top shelf guitars.

[marc61]

The place where they make these is about an hours drive from me

[longhouse]

[longhouse]

Wonder if they offer tours of the workshop, Marc...

They're quite pricy guitars -but so nice. I've only seen/heard one in person.

[johnallg]

Why adjust the neck on the fly? There'd go your tuning. Beautiful wood.

[longhouse]

John, they insist the tuning and intonation stay true after adjustments are made. I sort of like the allen wrench being mounted to the peghead.

[johnallg]

Noel, after reading your answer and pondering that, I had to go to the site and see what they had to say about it (imagine that!). They raise or lower the whole neck assembly, not the tilt of the neck. Interesting.

[longhouse]

It's pretty neat, John. After working for years in the auto industry, I ask 'how long will the hardware hold up?'. But it seems pretty solid. 'course I was also worried about excess stress on the soundboard, but I was wrong about that. Guess I need to take a mechanical engineering course.

This is what their webpage says about the neck (will save you a trip to their site):

Traditionally there are two ways to adjust the action (string height) on acoustic guitars: altering the neck angle to the body, or changing the saddle height. Changing the neck angle is a very complicated, time consuming, and expensive project (not to mention very risky). As you may know there are some new 'dovetail-less' bolt-on neck sets that are meant to address the string action, but most fall short in performance and are designed as a 'way around' problematic soundboard designs (see the section on the Lateral Compression Soundboard). Many tilt or re-pitch the neck. The challenge with changing the neck angle is it will always change the instruments scale length, and always changes the tuning of the guitar if it's attempted when the guitar is tuned to pitch. This also makes for a nasty re-adjustment, which is typically suited for an experienced acoustic technician.

My new Continually Adjustable Neck addresses all this, and more. This is achieved by allowing the neck to slide up or down, with the turn of an ordinary Allen key, on command, by the musician, for the first time. When you lift the neck up or down to adjust the action, you are essentially adjusting the neck to the string height instead of the other way around. You are not re-pitching the neck, so a simple height adjustment does not affect tuning (pitch) or scale length. Another benefit of the new patented neck is that it is much like an electric guitar neck - because it is continuous, meaning that there is solid wood under the fret-board past the body that is integral to the neck itself. This offers extreme stability and sustain in the upper register. The dreaded fret-board 'drop off' past the body becomes extinct. The soundboard can vibrate more freely because the neck/fret-board is not attached to the top of the guitar like on conventional acoustics. Heavy upper bout bracing is unnecessary and eliminated. The height of the bridge's saddle never changes for the life of the guitar. High action warrantees are a non-issue.

A doctor had one of these at my guitar shop when I was in there for something. He raved about it -but was too timid to attempt the adjustment. The shop owner / tech (monsieur Willcutt) made the adjustment -and then began to rave about it too.

[bitzerguy]

I met Jeff Babicz at the Montreal Guitar Show a couple of years ago and spent a good 45 minutes with one of his creations. They are fantastic playing guitars. He even adjusted the neck height while I was playing a song on it. The action can be set lower than any acoustic I had ever played. Much closer to a nice 620 setup. Then twist the allen key a few times and your set to play slide. And the guitar stays in tune. I kidded Jeff at the time saying too bad it wouldn't change tuning to open G when you set the string height to max... The tone is very rich and full, with the most sustain and touch sensitivity I have experience in an acoustic. I preferred the standard body style tone to the one with sound holes on the top side, but that is just me. Very, very nice product.

[loves4003]

I played one some time ago and it sounded great, very warm and rich tone, quite loud too. It was a different model, it didn't have the extra soundholes but it did have those string anchors on the soundboard. I don't remember if it had the adjustable neck, but it was set up well and easy to play.

[marc61]

Wonder if they offer tours of the workshop, Marc...

They're quite pricy guitars -but so nice. I've only seen/heard one in person.

I've been through the whole place. There's a music store there. It's killing me because I can't remember the name of the shop. Anyway, I've been through the whole place. Looks like they can create anything and everything there with capable people who have been doing this for year.

They usually have a couple of guitars they are looking to move on the less expensive side.

[longhouse]

I was once married to a woman from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bethlehem is about ten minutes from Nazareth -and I never made it to the Martin factory for a tour. Someone sent me one of the soundhole cutouts though.

It's great that you've seen the place, Marc.

The doctor's Babicz had a big sound (it was the 16" jumbo) but with a pronounce airy quality which set it apart from other instruments. It's something I've heard in a few Lowden guitars (another holy grail instrument). Given the broad assortment of wood combinatins I guess you could tailor a very specific tone.
Babicz says this:

'If I were to build a guitar of my dreams, I would use Brazilian Rosewood for the back and sides, Adirondack or German spruce for the soundboard with a Honduran Mahogany neck. This trio, in the builder's world, is known as the 'Holy Trinity' of tone woods.'

[jingle_jangle]

John, they insist the tuning and intonation stay true after adjustments are made. I sort of like the allen wrench being mounted to the peghead.

I like driving my car with a pipe wrench clipped to the trunklid, too...

[longhouse]

I like driving my car with a pipe wrench clipped to the trunklid, too...

You should have seen my old Landcruiser...

It seems SO odd to have a tool fixed to the peghead of an expensive, top shelf guitar, but somehow I like it. Batman chic maybe. Looking through the pictures shows some models without the hex key though. Guess it's optional.

Spent a few hot minutes looking through some MacPherson models this afternoon. Looks as if I'm to going to need a lot more $$$.

http://mcphersonguitars.com/activea.asp

[jps]

I was once married to a woman from Bethlehem

I thought this was going to be the beginning of a joke!