A Custom Babik Guitar for Me
Babik Music https://reverb.com/shop/richs-boutiqu... LE STYLE MODERNE - PROBABLY WHAT A 1920's TELECASTER WOULD LOOK LIKE • LE STYLE MODERNE - PROBABLY WHAT A 1920's ... Lightest Telecaster I Have Ever Played! • Lightest Telecaster I Have Ever Played! #g... Babik Custom Telecaster Build - Semi- Hollow Body - Fralin Pickups - 6 Lbs 8 oz Weight • Babik Custom Telecaster Build - Semi- Holl... Chambered African Padauk Body and Mahogany Neck Offset Telecaster Build • Chambered African Padauk Body and Mahogany... Stratosphere https://www.ebay.com/str/thestratosphere I have built four guitars using custom bodies from Babik Music. Rich Babik makes handmade, custom guitar bodies. I am not being sponsored by Rich or getting any free goods from him. I am also not an affiliate. This is my freely given opinion. I have sold all four of the Babik guitars I have built, and each build have been excellent guitars in their own rights. I regret not keeping one for myself. I am going to build two guitars in the near future using Babik bodies. The one in this video and one still to come. The one still to come will be a very unique guitar. The body will have a sunrise pattern in the wood and will be built on a larger offset body. It will have small sound holes on the top side of the body. The neck pocket will be a rounded pocket so I can use a Stratocaster style neck instead of Telecaster. I want to use a large headstock bullet truss rod neck that I already have. It will be in an Esquire configuration with only a bridge pickup. There will not be any routing for a neck pickup. I also asked for the bridge pickup routing to be for a humbucker pickup so I can install a Seymour Duncan P-Rails pickup to give me the most options for pickup selection. I will use a short telecaster bridge with three compensated saddles (probably). I may install a six saddle bridge, I have not made up my mind. Link to the Babic Music Reverb store is in the video description. The body for today’s build is a unique shaped body with routings for a Telecaster. It is built with the woods of: Leopardwood on African Mahogany light weight, with an Art Top. For the neck I am using a maple Fender Player II neck. At the time I built this guitar I had two Player II necks. One was with a rosewood fretboard and the other maple. I held them both up and asked my wife which she thought most complemented the colors in the body of the guitar. We both decided the maple most suited the overall look. Since both necks are excellent I was not worried about picking a bad neck for the sake of aesthetics. The neck we chose has the following specs: • Material: Maple • Modern "C" shape • Rolled fretboard edges • Finish: Satin urethane finish on back, gloss urethane finish on front • Nut Material: Synthetic bone • Nut Width: 1.650" (42 mm) • Scale Length: 25.5" (64.77 cm) • Fingerboard Material: Maple • Fret Size: Medium jumbo • Number of Frets: 22 • Fender® ClassicGear™ Tuners I purchased the neck from the Stratosphere eBay store for $279 including the tuners. Link to the store is in the video description. Again, the Guitar Collector Guy channel is not sponsored by or an affiliate of Stratosphere. https://www.ebay.com/str/thestratosphere The pickups I installed were the Fender Pure Vintage ’52 Reissue Telecaster Pickups and I paid $149 for the set. You can google the pickup set name and find a preferred retailer for you. You could save a little money and purchase a used set on Reverb.com. Here are the pickups specs from Fender: Magnet Type: Alnico 3 Inductance: Neck: 2.4 Henries, Bridge: 3.8 Henries DC Resistance: Neck: 7.2k, Bridge: 6.6k The bridge, neck plate, knobs, and control plate are all Fender vintage style parts. The three compensated brass saddles are Wilkinson saddles. The electronics for the guitar are pretty straight forward. I built a modern telecaster circuit with two solid shaft CTS 250k pots, a 3-way Oak Grigsby Pickup Selector, a .047 uf Capacitor, and a Switchcraft ¼ inch output jack. One thing I like about semi-hollow guitar bodies is they usually are light. The guitar assembled weighs in at 6 lbs and 4 ozs. Very nice weight for a guitar. This is a guitar that I have to keep looking at and admiring. As I said before I built this one for me without any intention to ever sell it. Because of the semi-hollow body, the guitar is very resonant and as a result with good pickups sounds great plugged in. The tones that come out through the amp are warm and smooth. She is a beauty to look at but also a joy to play.
