The Unique Guitar Blog: Newman Guitars - The History Of Ted Newman Jones

Ted Newman Jones

Guitar luthier Ted Newman Jones III was born on October 8, 1949 in Dyersburg, Tennessee. In his teen years, like many of us, he became interested in rock music and playing guitar. He became particularly obsessed with the Rolling Stones. Although he played guitar, Jones found he had more of a talent for fixing electric guitars than playing them and he become very good at repairing and modifying guitars.

Word of his reputation got around, and In 1970 he was hired to refurbish and reconstruct a number of guitars for Eric Clapton. Among those instruments was Clapton’s famous “Blackie” Stratocaster.

Keith Richards and
Ted Newman Jones

About a year later when Newman Jones was introduced to Keith Richards, possibly through his relationship with Clapton. This meeting occurred around the time that The Stones were recording their “Exile On Main Street” recording sessions at a French mansion called Villa Nellcôte.

It was during that meeting Richards’ recognized the talent and determination of Ted Newman Jones. About a year later Richards hired him as his go-to guitar tech. From that moment Ted was known throughout the music industry as “Keith’s Right Hand Man”. Jones was only 22 years old at the time.

This meeting in France was not the first time Jones met Keith Richards. In 1969 the Stones played a concert in Georgia when their aircraft iced over causing them to arrive late to the concert. Ted was at this concert and knew a guy there that knew the band. Because of this Jones was able to go backstage.

There he was introduced to BB King, and Chuck Berry before meeting Richards.

1965 Rickenbacker
Model 450

Ted Newman Jones' trip to England, then to France was actually a re-introduction to Richards. The purpose of this trip was so that Ted could present Keith Richards with a solid body Rickenbacker guitar that Jones had totally rebuilt.

At the time Jones had been living in a Memphis apartment that was previously rented by Leon Russell. Russell had left his records and tapes there. Jones learned to play “Brown Sugar” in open E on an old solid body Rickenbacker guitar.

He thought the guitar looked pretty cool and he became obsessed with the notion that he would somehow give it to Keith Richards. Well actually Jones sold it to him.

Ted was able to acquire some phone numbers for the Rolling Stones office in London. He then traveled to Britain and met with the girls in the Stones office. Those girls there loved his Southern accent and couldn’t get enough of asking him questions to keep him talking. Jones used this as a ploy to get information from the ladies, and learned that The Stones were living in the south of France and recording.

Nellcote Villa

The group was using a mobile recording truck which was built inside a huge green bus parked outside of the building. He was able to pinpoint the mansion where The Stones was staying. Jones then traveled by train to Paris, Cannes, and Nice. He stayed with the lady who was CEO of The Rolling Stones organization. She let him know the band was about a mile away recording and living in a villa called Nellcote.

This is where he met Keith and was able to present him with the Rickenbacker guitar. Ted, Keith and the group then went downstairs to where to the microphones were set up. To impress Richards, Jones took a nearby Les Paul out of a guitar case and launched into Brown Sugar.

Richards and Jagger
in studio at Villa Nellcote

Keith smiled when I got through it. So he took the guitar from Jones and said, ‘No, no, let me show you’ Richards took the bottom string off, then tuned it to open G and said, ‘This is the way you do it’ and that’s the way he played it. The was the five-string tuning Keith used.

He capoed it at the fourth fret, it would be B, capoed at the fifth fret it would be C. C would be used for ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want,’ back up in B would be ‘Rip This Joint,’ ‘It’s Only Rock n’ Roll’… ‘Midnight Rambler’ was, believe it or not, in standard tuning capoed at the seventh fret. It was unique.”

The Rolling Stone's Family
at Villa Nellcote

Jones thought his mission was accomplished when he sold the Rickenbacker to Keith for $300. He hung out for a while before returning to the States.

Later in October, after the basic the Exile sessions concluded, the band found out that a number of guitars were stolen, the bulk of those belonged to Keith. The Stones were headed to a Los Angeles recording studio to add tracks to The Exile album.

Keith remembered Jones and had his associate contact him. He wanted Jones to repair the instruments he still had, and find replacements for the stolen guitars. The Stone’s management arranged for Jones to come to L.A. and offered him a place to stay.

Keith With Malcolm

Jones found several guitars to rebuild for Keith’s collection, two of which to this day are Keith’s most famous guitars, a 1953 butterscotch-Telecaster which he would later (in the ‘80s) name ‘Micawber’ and a 1954 natural ash-finished Telecaster he would later name ‘Malcolm’.

A couple of months later, in 1972, Keith would again contacted Jones, and asked him to accompany him on the Stones STP tour as his personal guitar tech.

With Keith’s interest in open tunings, it occurred to him that when on the road he would need someone to tend the multiple guitars and and during shows provide his with the ones with different tunings when recreating Stones songs onstage.

So Ted Newman Jones became the first ‘guitar tech’, a job that went on to become a necessary position for all bands in concert., Yes, Jones unintentionally invented the concept of what a guitar tech does for artists in concert.

Keith flew him out to the rehearsals in Los Angeles for the 1972 North American STP tour which began in early June lasted through the end of July. The Stones played 51 shows at 32 venues. Stevie Wonder and his band opened all the concerts.

Keith with Micawber
Telecaster

During the first part of the tour, Jones replaced the neck position Fender pickups on the 1953 butterscotch (‘Micawber’) and the 1954 natural (‘Malcolm’) Telecasters with Gibson PAF humbuckers. He also replaced the bridge pickup on the 1953 butterscotch blond maple neck Tele with a Fender lap-steel pickup, which was similar to the Fender Broadcaster’s pickup.

Jones set this Tele up as a five-string for open-G tuning, which Keith once described it as, “my main Tele five-string.”

Jones: said that he put the Humbucker pickups in, using a screwdriver as a chisel. At the time this was a first. Later on a lot of players put Humbucker pickups in the neck position for Telecasters.. Ever the innovator, Jones was the first person to ever do that! Fender later came up production models with a humbucking neck pickup.

After the tour Ted Newman Jones eventually set up shop, with the help of Keith in Austin, Texas to develop his own line of guitars, that he called Newman Guitars. During this time his primary concern was to supply Keith with customized five- and six-string Newman instruments.

Early five string Newman,
made for Keith

Jones’ first ever Newman Guitar appeared in the public eye on January 18, 1973, when Keith played it at the benefit concert for the victims of the Nicaraguan earthquake on January 18 at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

Newman Guitar made for Keith

The guitar’s body shape was quite unlike the shape that would typify the Newman Guitars of the future, similar to a smaller-sized non-reverse Firebird. The guitar was intended to be tuned to open G. Keith commented at the time in Hit Parader:

“Ted’s been making guitars for me with special kinds of tuning. I’ve had a five-string guitar made which is for a certain kind of playing … They’re the kinds of things you can’t get anywhere except from him, because he makes them all by hand, and it takes quite a while.”

Early '70's
Newman

Keith used this guitar extensively throughout 1973. By the time the Stones did the ’73-UK-Europe Tour, Jones installed an alternate bridge which gave way to rumors of a ‘second model’ of the guitar (the little ‘swastika’ stickers Keith added by that time also gave it a different appearance). However it was actually the same model.

Ted’s partner, Jeff Smith said that he and Ted talked about this guitar and referred to it as “Franken-science”. It was actually the first guitar that Ted made from scratch. He thought it looks like it’s pieced together from somebody’s garage and was barbaric. It was not, however, a refined Newman guitar.

Another second famous guitar that Jones put together for Keith looked like a copy of a Fender Telecaster and included Telecaster electronics. The instruments body was made from a solid piece of mahogany, and it had a solid rosewood neck that was purchased from Fender.

Rosewood Tele made
by Ted Newman Jones

This guitar evolved one day when Keith and Ted were walking down an L.A. street where there were a lot of music stores. They saw a guitar this neck was hanging in the window. Ted asked Keith of they could go in where he picked up the Tele with the Rosewood neck and asked Keith, ‘Can I have it?’ Keith bought the Tele and gave it to Jones to build him a copy. A copy that was better than the original.

The Stones did not tour in 1979, so Ron Wood put together a band. Jones saw this as an opportunity to build guitars. It was at this time that he presented Keith with what Ted Jones deemed ‘the PERFECT’ Newman guitar This guitar had a padouk body, bird’s eye maple top. EMG pickups and he had fashioned all the hardware myself.

Blueprint for 1980 Newman

This instrument was to become the prototype for the ‘Keith Richard’ five-string model.” He made the detailed blueprints of it that were dated January 1980.

The next year, 1981, Jones decided to take a permanent break from touring with the Stones in order to concentrate on his guitar line in Austin, so he handed the reins over to Stone’s new guitar tech Alan Rogan.

Newman Jones with
Woodpecker Guitar
for Ron Wood

Several custom Newman guitars soon began surfacing and were seen in all the major music periodicals of the time, among them ones he created for Bob Dylan (with Christian cross inlays), Tom Petty (with broken heart inlays), and most notably the ‘Woody Woodpecker’ model he made for Ron Wood.

With the ‘Keith Richard’ five-string guitar model going into full production and an endless list of high-profile clientele were requesting custom guitars.

Lucinda Williams with
her Newman acoustic

The Newman guitar line, rooted in Austin, was becoming successful. As the ‘80s progressed into the ‘90's, Jones slowly drifted out of the limelight.. But he continued building guitars through the early ‘90s including a customized Newman guitar for Lucinda Williams in 1993. This guitar was a black Brazilian Rosewood acoustic with spade inlays. Twenty years later it was sent back to Newman guitar for restoration.

Jones had some legal issues and in 1995 he was briefly imprisoned, falsely accused of pedophilia. Those charges were eventually dismissed.

Chandler Austin Special

In the late 1990’s Ted Newman Jones struck a deal with the California-based Chandler Guitars who were making a Newman-Jones designed “Austin Special” guitar. But production came to halt when he had a falling out with the company.

In 2014 Jones moved back to Dyersburg, where it all began, and set up shop in his father’s old workshop. Jones spent the remainder of his life in Dyersberg and would commence working with his assistant Jeff Smith until the day that Ted passed away in 2016 from lung cancer:

In interviews Jeff Smith say this was where he and Ted got started. The went from building a company to a legacy transition because of Ted's death. He stated the it was very important to Ted that I understood him and that we shared the same dream for Newman Guitars. I assured him I would be the caretaker of quality that would forever bear his name.

Ted Newman Jones
in later years

Ted's health had changed his body but not his mind so we kept working all the way to the end. Within a year they had their first prototype guitar for Texas legend Joe Ely. Smith desire was to continue the Newman legacy by manufacturing the Newman five-string ‘Keith Richard’ model guitar among others. Jeff Smith said that Ted was such a pioneer that he left a body of work unfinished. The five-string open G guitar has merit to modern players and it needs to be re-introduced.

Though Jones had been ill for a quite a stretch of time before being diagnosed with lung cancer in April of 2015, he knew his time on earth was nearly over. But he had a bright outlook for the future of the Newman guitar line.

Ted Newman Jones

Before passing Jones though the Newman guitar line has been taken to its fullest extent, five-string, six-string, neck-through, bolt-on neck. But Jeff Smith and he enhanced everything was accomplished and created some additional guitars. It took some refinement since the 1978 concept and it continues.

Ted Newman Jones
and Jeff Smith

Smith vows to keep Newman Guitars on track infinitely. Prior to Ted's passing, the pair had added Jacob Harper, who was a skilled luthier and won Ted’s respect. Newman Guitars continues with that relationship.

Danny O'Brien -
engraver

A later addition to Newman guitars was engraver, Danny O’Brien. O’Brien previously worked for British gunsmith engraving shotguns and rifles. Through a friend lhe met luthier Tony Zemaitis who was making some exquisite guitar, coincidentally for The Rolling Stones.

2019 Newman owned
by Dr. Ian Dickey

Zemaitis had the idea of shielding the electronic with metal plates made of aircraft grade aluminum mounted on top of the guitars and hired O’Brien to engrave the plates with decorations. When the relationship with the Zemaitis company concluded after 15 years, Newman Guitars hired O’Brien to engrave the plates on their high-end guitars in a similar style.

Newman guitars offers three designs; The Engraved Series, The 3-D Model, and The Custom Build.

Newman solid body guitars all have a very similar offset shape that comes with a single Florentine cutout.

Danny O'Brien's sketch

The Engraved series features an engraved aluminum plate that can cover all of the instruments top, or can be applied with two panels. Engraved aluminum truss rod covers and headstock plates are also offered. These guitars are made in the United States and the aluminum parts are all exquisitely produced by master craftsman Danny O'Brien of the U.K. The new models are available through Rumble Seat Music in Nashviille, Tennessee.

Each guitar is designed from Ted Newman Jones original specifications, and each guitar is different due to the engraved ornamentation.

Chambered Body

The Newman 3 D series of guitars are solid body, chambered guitars. The body is made of swamp ash, and the carved top is made of maple. The top of the body is bound, and the back is carved with a comfortable contour.

Newman 3 D Models

The top features a unique raised area in the center. The V shaped neck is bolt-on with an ebony fret board topped with pearloid button markers. The headstock is done in a six-on-a-side style done with Newman's unique shape.

These guitars come with two custom made humbucking pickups with a shared volume and tone control, that has a treble-bleed circuit.

The wraparound bridge is fixed with individual saddles. The hardware is chrome. These guitars can be ordered with engraved aluminum wings on the sides of the body.

Newman Custom
Models

The Custom Build Models are just what they say they are. You decide on everything other than the body shape. All Newman guitars have the same shape.

Newman's Prototype

These guitars were inspired by Ted Newman Jones' first prototype.

Most have a six-on-a-side headstock with the standard Newman shape, but you can order a three-on-a-side headstock as an option.

These guitars can have a natural finish or a high gloss finish, or you can order the instrument with a custom painted top.

Newman Guitar

You can also order different pickups, be it twin humbuckers, or a single bridge pickup with a humbucking neck pickup and a Tele style bridge, or twin humbuckers with a tune-o-matic style bridge with a stop tailpiece.

I am honored

Newman Guitars specializes in five-string guitars based on Keith Richard's preference. They are incredible and well made instruments.

Lukie
April 2002 - November 2020

During the writing of the article my best little buddy, Lukie, passed away. He was 18 and a half years old. He was not just a pet, he was my friend. I loved him. He is very much missed. I write this in his memory.

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