Engraved Series and working with Danny O’Brien by: IAN DICKEY
Ian Dickey—
It was the summer of 1982, the Rolling Stones had just wrapped up their European tour at Roundhay Park, I had turned thirteen and received David Dalton’s The Rolling Stones: The First Twenty Years as a cherished gift. It had just been released – which today sounds comical as the group has since seen its Golden Jubilee come and go and is a mere 36 months from the diamond milestone! Amongst all sorts of great tidbits and information on the band, there was a very unique trifold pull out. It was an article and a blue print of the world’s first dedicated five string guitar. The brain child of Keith Richards and a Texan with the grand name of Ted Newman-Jones III no less. Having been born and raised in Vancouver, it was with further delight that I learned that the inception and first rough sketch was on a dining room table cloth on one wild June night in a Vancouver hotel on the 1972 tour – the last time they would play the city for 17 years – the show being marred with an unruly mob of 2,000 hurling rocks, bottles and the occasional Molotov cocktail – street fighting men indeed!
I took up the guitar after that very summer of 1982 spent reading Dalton’s book when a rugby playing friend – a giant of a man -showed me how to play Slave! My love affair with learning their songs firmly begun, and as I developed and learned more and more about chords, scales, cords, picks, pedals, Fender, Gibson, Boogie and open tunings, that trifold kept coming back to me! Once I realized I had been playing Brown Sugar, Soul Survivor and Sway all wrong – I needed to be in open G – I realized I needed a 5 string! In fact, could not go a moment longer without one. I went in search of my dogeared copy of Dalton’s book and pulled out the trifold. Long before Google in the era of 411 – I tried for many months in vain to either track down a Newman, get in touch with Mr. Newman-Jones III, as did I have the funds to commission a guitar from the blue print. Like the master of riff – I resigned myself to pull the sixth string off of my telecaster and merrily open G away!!
Thirty-six years later, I have seen the Stones live 12 times, I have graduated medical school and have acquired Keith Richards’ first MESA/Boogie Mark I A804 from the El Mocambo shows captured on Love You Live Side 3 – but that’s a whole other story. I had also established my own Children’s Cancer Charity named Chords for Cure, based around a Rolling Stones Tribute that plays nothing but Stones and donates all of the money raised to help Maine’s Children fighting cancer. Sitting in a hotel room in Ohio, on the road to teach a course on 3-D printed knee replacement, the 411 era long in the rearview mirror, I was meandering around the internet and suddenly stumbled upon not only a NEWMAN, but the company making them!! All these years later it seemed I could not only get the still sorely needed fabled true five string but get the inside scoop from Mr. Newman-Jones III himself. Sadly, Ted had passed two years earlier on July 1, 2016, I was too late it seemed. With the miracle of Google, I naturally started to research and read more about this fellow I had briefly read about that summer of 1982. I was quite astounded. Ted really was the archetype of the now ubiquitous guitar tech. He cut his teeth compiling and assembling the components of various Stratocasters that Clapton had purchased in Nashville into one of the most famous guitars and valuable of all time, namely Clapton’s Blackie! Heady stuff! From there Slowhand sent him Richards’ way at Nellcote. Through the recording of Exile and the associated ’72 tour, Ted nailed the gig and forged the job description of guitar tech for the Riff Master. He fulfilled this roll on all the subsequent tours up to and including the infamous tour of 1977 with the bust in Toronto, literally staying in the next room to Keith at the Harbor Castle Hotel just before the El Mocambo shows where Randy Smith of MESA fame, delivered Keith’s first Boogie A804, the first of 42 they would purchase over the years. Ted’s last formal tech role with the band would be on the resultant 1979 New Barberians/CNIB shows in Ottawa as part of Richards’ sentence. The famous “Wagon Wheel” picture by photographer Michael Putland showcases Keith with his 6 string NEWMAN and foot atop his prized A804 Boogie adorned with cigarette burns!
He would part Stones camp and establish himself in Austin, TX with initial seed money from Richards. He would relocate to Nashville and ultimately Washington, IN where a new partnership would be forged prior to his passing. Along this long winding path from the hotel dining room in Vancouver in 1972, Ted would have made instruments for many of the greats, Wood, Dylan, Nelson and Joe Ely to name a few.
Luckily for myself and the guitar world, Ted’s passion was not lost in 2016 – Jeff Smith, a NEWMAN enthusiast who sought Ted out– picked up the reigns and committed to keep the integrity and vision of Ted and NEWMAN alive.
I reached out to Jeff and shared my long-standing desire to acquire a NEWMAN and that I had the VERY amp the company’s creative co-founder had his foot perched upon. We struck up a conversation as if we were old band mates and riffed on all things NEWMAN, Keith and related. Now all these years later, I would not have to try to recreate an instrument from a torn out blueprint from a 36 year old book, I was at the headwaters, the very source. We decided that a matched pair of NEWMANS was in the offing, the question remained as to what this pair would be.
Years earlier, dead ended on my NEWMAN pursuit, I went in a very different, albeit clear Stones direction. I researched and sought out the fabled Zemaitis guitar, ultimately ending up with the rarest of his offerings, a 5 String Metal Front!!! Keith – inspired by his work with Ted, had the famous Macabre 5 string made in 1974 for the 1975 U.S. tour. While I love and play the guitar often, I still felt that longing for the guitar of trifold fame! Thus, my inspiration was born. What would be more NEWMAN than a NEWMAN, more Zemaitis than a Zemaits? Well a fusion of the two!
In my pursuit and research of Zemaitis, I was blessed to encounter Danny O’Brien, the engraver that made these guitars so visually striking. Tony Zemaitis had started out using all aircraft aluminum pick guards or metal fronts, as a way of perhaps shielding 60 cycle pick-up hum. The large area of blank real estate inspired Tony to try his hand at metal engraving. What exceptional skills Tony clearly had as luthier were perhapsnot as apparent with respect to his skills at engraving. What he may have lacked, Danny – who learned his trade in part at the famous Purdey & Sons – easily made up for, and then some. Thus, another incredible partnership was formed with two world class artisans. A veritable who’s who list of the world’s guitarists came knocking.
In the summer of 2011, I discovered that I had a six-string metal front of Danny’s cousin. I had purchased an exceptional guitar made in 1980 for Gary Grainger, with its large scroll engravingand details, it is breath taking site to behold. The guitar was sold shortly after the Rod Stewart world tour of ‘80-81 – Foolish Behavior indeed - to Mick Mars of Motley Crue. He in turn sold it to Norman’s Rare guitars. Jason Allen of Virtual Vintage acquired it and in turn sold it to me. Anyway, that summer, I hosted Danny and his delightful wife Trish to a visit to the Maine cost and lakes – their respective first to the United States! We had a fabulous time breaking bread, guitar strings and laughing endlessly. A friendship was forged!
With this history in mind, I reached out to Danny in 2019 asked if he would be able and willing to work on a whole new version of engraved guitars. I had envisioned a NEWMAN with an engraved top. A true full circle of all things Stones, Keith, open G, Ted, Tony Z and Danny O’Brien. He said he would love to help out as his tenure with Zemaitis Japan had just wrapped up. Timing, albeit 37 years later, was finally on my side! I reached out to Jeff and pitched the idea and voila – a Vancouver kid, two at the time when Keith and Ted conceived NEWMAN in that Vancouver Hotel, had brought the concept to fruition, an orthopaedic surgeon had been the midwife no less!!
Partnering with Danny O’Brien (The Engraver); Jeff Smith (The NEWMAN President); David Humphreys (The Metal Worker); Jacob Harper (The Luthier) and Ian Dickey (The Surgeon and Creative Project Manager) the Engraved Series NEWMAN is launched. The first two – IDDMD 001 & IDDMD 003 are a six string and a five string pair, ornately engraved and encompassing many elements of my life and inspiration told by Danny in the engraving!
With interest and orders from larger concerns than me – perhaps a new legend to be captured in a trifold has been born?