Australian Musician Magazine
December 2006

Read this article on the Australian Musician website.

Jeff Babicz began building traditional acoustic guitars as a youngster, and in the early 80’s worked for Steinberger, eventually becoming their Plant Manager, whilst intentionally avoiding the “mould room”! He now holds patents (or those pending) on the designs incorporated in the guitar I am reviewing, the “Identity Spider” model, and calls this assemblage of elements the “icZ Acoustic System”.

Mechanics
Visually, the dominant impression of this guitar comes from its highly unusual string anchoring. The strings do not anchor behind the bridge as per most other guitars, but rather from very close to the edge of the guitars’ lower bout, & spread out in a fan shape. Unlike other acoustic guitars which, due to their construction, place an incredible amount of strain on the top (the sound-board), the Babicz’s top is freer to vibrate, as the string tension is spread more evenly across the top & is not centred at the bridge, which is normally the weakest & most flexible spot. This is the spot where we’ve all seen a “bubble” as a result of the tension forcing the top up.Taking advantage of this different string anchoring, Babicz has also utilized lighter & different bracing, even borrowing from the “tone bars” found in arch-top designs. This results in a very different sounding guitar. More on that later in the piece.

Although the guitar being extremely well finished in a black satin has the appearance of some strange space-age material, it is, in fact, mahogany. Exactly which type of mahogany is not specified.

The guitar plays beautifully. It’s surprising, kinda spooky and very enjoyable to play a guitar that “sings” in the upper registers. This is a great instrument.

The neck is also mahogany; the bridge is rosewood, as I suspect the fingerboard is also, though I couldn’t find mention of it on the web site. Whatever, it feels and sounds good! Unlike other acoustic guitars, the neck continues well into the body of the guitar, and this also contributes to the different way this guitar responds. It also means that the sagging of the body around the neck/body join commonly found on “traditional” guitars will not be a problem. Both the nut & bridge saddle are “NuBone”, which I assume is a material made by Babicz. This looks very similar to “Tusq”, but appears to be harder. Nice stuff!

The finish is exceptionally well done. One concern is that I would like to know how the top’s satin finish wears after years of abuse. Will it get “shiny” spots? The headstock design allows for a reasonably straight string-through to the very lovely nickel Grover tuners. I am a big fan of straighter over-the-nut angles (as per Seagull & Belman, to name just two), as they suffer less from the problems of the strings grabbing at the nut than guitars with a greater angle. (I am not talking about the break-angle, which is the angle the string exhibits as it goes down to the tuner).

One very cool thing about this guitar is that the adjustment for string height does not take place in the usual manner, i.e. either tilting the neck angle or rasing or lowering the bridge, but rather the entire neck is able to be shifted either up or down, sliding in its neck/body join. I am not aware of this on any other design, which is unfortunate, as it makes complete sense to me! (As with so many other “now why didn’t I think of that?” ideas) . What this means in the real world, is that the intonation is not thrown out to any noticeable extent when adjusting the neck. With other designs, a change in neck angle means a change in string length, which means a trip to the guitar doctor to re-set the action & intonation.

The bridge is, as one may expect after having seen the guitar’s other attributes, just as the neck is; fully, quickly and easily adjustable by the player. In the “Real World” this means: Lower action? No prob. Raised action for slide work? No prob. A change in string tension needs addressing? No prob. Hhhmmm………. A double-action truss rod sits beneath the fingerboard, and can be called upon if a truss rod adjustment is ever necessary. The correct allen key lives tidily at the back of the headstock, between the Grovers. Out of the way and un-obtrusive. This is one well thought-out machine.

Sound & Playability
The guitar plays beautifully. No complaints. The action will be just right for most players, there are no buzzes or rattles, the neck has the slightest relief, and the string gauges on this example (which my micrometer tells me are 13 to 52) feel comfortable. The Babicz company rave would have you believe that these guitars do not suffer from the decreasing sustain in the higher frets area that is present is almost every other acoustic guitar. Well, they’re right! It’s surprising, kinda spooky and very enjoyable to play a guitar that “sings” in the upper registers. And, scoring major points for me, there is no bottom-end “boominess” as found on many other acoustic guitars. (For the most part, Jumbo sized acoustics are my least favourite guitars because of the fluffy bottom end they produce; apologies to J-200 fans).

The tonal response & volume across all the strings is very even, and due to this, I predict the guitar would record very well (with a microphone, you lazy buggers), giving one the opportunity of being able to easily weak it to fit the mix, rather than having to notch out the nodes that one so often encounters on acoustics. The L.R Baggs Element Onboard under-saddle pickup performs well. I can’t honestly say it’s outstanding, as I find it hard to get excited about any piezo pickup. Please address hate mail to the editor! Although I didn’t attempt this, as it would require a change to a heavier string gauge, I suspect the Babicz would be a good candidate for lower tunings (think Leo Kottke) as the even tone and lack of “boominess” would be very low-tuning friendly.Try it! The lack of dead notes in the upper regions also means that using a capo doesn’t yield a “banjo-like” sound. A big plus for those of us who like capos, or who like to over-dub capo parts to enhance a song.

Conclusion
At the risk of repeating the bleeding obvious, the Babicz sounds very different from other similarly sized & shaped guitars. It incorporates designs meant to solve the old problems in a new way, rather than just fixing the “fixes”. As always, be objective & learn to trust your ears.You may well grow to love the sound of this guitar, but you will first have to get beyond pre-conceptions of what a “good” acoustic guitar sounds like. All up, this is a great instrument.

22nd Century Rock Magazine
Fall 2006

The Construction:
The Octane is a hollow body design, built of solid Mahogany sides, back and top with well fitted black & white binding. The neck is also of Mahogany with a Rosewood fingerboard fitted with 20 frets, Grover minituners and a 2 way truss rod. The adjustable torque reducing split bridge is also of Rosewood. Although Babicz make the Octane with a choice of either 2 or 3 Humbucker or single coil Seymour Duncan pick-ups, the one I am reviewing is equipped with 3 Seymour Duncan “Cool Rails” and an L.R. Baggs piezo custom pick-up under the bridge for a more true acoustic reproduction. The guitar also incorporates a 5 position pickup selector switch and is equipped with a master volume control, master tone control and an optional Piezo blend control knob. Now to the main innovations.

Firstly, the obvious and most noticeable is the Babicz method of anchoring the strings making the instrument look like it has a spider web at the back end of the body. This is not just a gimmick to make the guitar look different. In most acoustic and hollow body guitars, one of the problems encountered is that the soundboard has to be very heavily braced underneath where the strings are attached to counter the immense pressure created by the pull of the strings. This bracing inhibits the soundboard’s ability to resonate to it’s full potential hence losing natural tone and sustain. Babicz guitars counter this problem by placing individual string anchors around the far edge of the soundboard so the stress load, (torque), is distributed evenly allowing the natural resonance of the wood to attain it’s full potential.

The second innovation is the patented “Continually Adjustable” neck. Simply explained this is where the neck is mounted on a perpendicular rail whereby the “action” can be altered in mere seconds without losing your tuning by a conveniently attached Allen wrench at the back of the headstock. This makes the guitar ideal for raising the action not only for personal comfort but also if you need to use it to play slide on a certain song.

The Feel and Sound
For those of you familiar with Heaven & Earth and my sound will know that I have always used a Strat, but for our new forthcoming album I’ve decided to use a lot of different guitars as well to add a more modern and blended sound to the band. The Octane is definitely going to be one of those guitars. With it’s flat radius fingerboard it has the playing feel of a Les Paul and has a sound which can best be described as a cross between a Les Paul and a Telecaster although it is a very versatile instrument and in the short time I’ve had it, have not had time to fully explore all it’s capabilities. On the back of the guitar is an access panel that has an array of electronic setting controls which can be set for personal preference and although they seem quite complicated at first, the guys at Babicz were very helpful and freely offered a lot of advise and tips on manipulating these controls.

Final Thoughts
This is definitely a “professional” guitar and not a toy so I would not recommend anybody buy one as a “first guitar”. It will take some time to get used to all the sound options it offers but once you have found your comfort zone with it, you will find it can become a very useful tool in your sound arsenal. Costs run from around $1,649 upwards depending on what options you go for, but in the overall long run well worth it. I think you will be seeing a lot more players using these guitars as the word spreads.

Guitar One Magazine
November 2006

Acoustic guitars have limited lives. Pit one hundred-plus pounds of string tension against four or five pounds of wood, and sooner or later the strings win, leaving you with a bellied top and a bent neck. Add to this the headaches of an acoustic instrument capable of rock-level tone and volume and most guitarists flash on memories of howling firewood with a gloss finish. Jeff Babicz (rhymes with “rabbits”) has already proven himself a consummate builder of radically redesigned (and beautiful sounding) acoustics capable of adjusting for the ravages of string tension. His new Octane guitar transfers his vision to a hollow bodied electric design with remarkable success.

For delivering brilliant innovation, consummate build quality, and a superior palate of tones, the Babicz Octane clearly earns our “1 Award.”

DESIGN
The Octane’s eye-grabbing strings-across-the-face arrangement is Babicz’s “Lateral Compression Soundboard” design, which transfers string tension from the center of the guitar to its perimeter and eliminates top bellying. Other Babicz innovations include a bolt-on, adjustable bridge coupled with a second string retainer (which further reduces bellying and allows for adjustable intonation) and an adjustable neck for setting the action. It’s a credit to Jeff Babicz that all this nuts-and-bolts technology has been so artfully integrated into the guitar’s design. Take a close look: the chrome string ends across the guitar’s face are capped with comfortable and unobtrusive chrome bonnets, the black hex head nuts are neatly countersunk into the bridge, and the neck adjusts with a single countersunk screw, handsomely framed by a small chrome surround. Incidentally, construction, setup and finish on the Babicz Octane was absolutely flawless.

SOUND
If the Octane was just a good-sounding guitar, it would earn points for its ease of adjustment. But this is a great-sounding guitar in every respect. Although its acoustic output is quiet, it’s remarkably well balanced and could easily be used for recording. Switch to either of its amplified modes – via piezo or magnetic pickups – and prepare to be blown still further away. Our reviewed model came with Seymour Duncan Hot Rails (bridge and middle) and Cool Rails (neck) pickups that just dripped with attitude. Snarl and snap abounded, and each of the five pickup positions gave a unique slant on the overall tone. The L.R. Baggs piezo system sounded great through a standard guitar amp; through a full PA system, it was glorious. And even with the magnetic pickups raging through an overdriven 100-watt tube amp, the Octane proved nearly immune to foghorn feedback. "When you can truly transmit organic vibrations through high quality electronics, then you've created a guitar that is a benchmark for blues, jazz, and rock musicians,” notes founder and designer Jeff Babicz.

IS IT FOR YOU?
There are an awful lot of acoustic-electric guitars hanging on the wall at your local music store, but only a precious few will cover the electric end of the spectrum like the Babicz Octane. For delivering brilliant innovation, consummate build quality, and a superior palate of tones, the Babicz Octane clearly earns our “1 Award.”

Features: Hollow mahogany body (top, sides and back), adjustable Mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard, 25 1/2” scale, 16” radius, medium jumbo frets. Sure-grip rubberized knobs for master volume, master tone, magnetic/piezo blend, 5-position pickup selector (Stereo piezo/magnetic output available). Seymour Duncan Hot Rails/Cool Rails pickups (Duncan Pearly Gates/George Lynch Screamin’ Demon also available)
Finishes: Tobacco (reviewed), blue flame maple, black