Ray’s NEWMAN and the Early Days of Austin
While talking with Lucinda Williams and Billy F. Gibbons at different times, unbeknownst to the other, they had the same joke in recollection of Ted Newman Jones and his days in Austin: “his guitars were great but you had to finish the last 10% yourself.”
—Jeff Smith
My NEWMAN story by Ray Helmers
Third Coast Magazine published its first issue in August 1981. I, along with several other way-too-young partners, founded it as a monthly, general interest publication covering Austin, Texas. We published it until we folded in July 1987 during the great Savings and Loan economic bust. Along the way, we garnered many awards for journalism and design, including two National Magazine Award General Excellence nominations.
In addition to being a partner, I was the magazine’s Arc Director, as well as resident local music and guitar fan. I had arrived in Austin in 1974 from Houston for college, just in time to see a scruffy kid named Stevie join the powerhouse Paul Ray and the Cobras as second guitarist. His brother’s band The Fabulous Thunderbirds, were also starting to hit their stride. Doug Sahm was ever-present as well as many other great players. By the time we got our first issue out after 2 years of planning, the Joe Ely Band was churning out the hottest sets imaginable with Lloyd Maines, Ponty Bone, Bobby Keys and the dynamite Jesse Taylor, who were just an incredible sight to see and hear.
I think Jesse Taylor led us to Ted’s presence in Austin. For the first issue, we needed content, having no established writers yet. Our editor, John Tallaferro, and I went and talked to Ted briefly (he was hard to pin down), and came up with a small article about him and this shop. John was the writer and I was there to make sure the guitar details sounded right in the story. We bylined the story, Carl Christopher, using both our middle names, not wanting to have two Tallaferro bylines in the same issue.
In November of 1982, the staff threw me a huge surprise birthday party (and it was really a surprise!). As a centerpiece, they presented me with a cardboard mockup of a NEWMAN guitar, saying it would be ready soon. They all knew I had been forced to sell my electric guitars, a Gibson 1959 ES330 and a 1959 Les Paul Junior (for $100) during the lean times while trying to put together Third Coast Magazine. We still had no money and were working on a shoestring budget, so I knew they had to have worked some type of trade or other non-cash deal for the guitar. One of our salespeople, Ben Livingston, a guitarist and singer-songwriter in his own right, organized and coordinated the deal. To this day, I don’t know the details of the deal.
Anyway, one part of the deal was that I would provide hardware for the guitar. Since I had never taken apart or put together a guitar, Ben assisted me as we went down to the largest guitar store in Austin at the time, Strait Music, to make some purchases. We bought good quality hardware, including a stop tail bridge and a couple of chrome covered humbuckers that came highly recommended.
A few weeks later, Ben brought the guitar to my office. I thought it was generous. Unfortunately being a budget project, it had to case and the headstock was bare. I was encouraged to leave it at the office for a few days so everyone could see it. I came back to the office after running errands and the headstock had “Ray’s NEWMAN” painted on it. The staffers excitedly told me how some guy just dropped by, sat down and freehand painted it on while they watched. WOW!
I loved the guitar, both as a cool guitar, a guitar by a cool guy, and a treasured gift from friends and coworkers. But, it didn’t take long before I noticed something was a bit off. Above the 12th fret, something just didn’t sound right and it wasn’t just all my sloppy playing. Basically, it was determined that the fret spacing was just not cut correctly in the upper registers. I agonized over this for some time and didn’t want to mention it to coworkers. Since it was a non-cash favor job to begin with, I didn’t think it right to take it back to Teds, as I believe we was having struggles of his own.
Eventually, (maybe mid 1980’s), since it was a sentimental guitar gift that I would never part with, I decided to do what I could to make it playable. Through a friend, I met local luthier Mark Erlewine and he agreed with my assessment. He then cut and installed a new fretboard on the neck and I got a good case for it. After the magazine folded in July 1987, I moved across town to the big time Texas Monthly magazine, where I would work for the next 30 years. Once at Texas Monthly, I went from art, to production and manufacturing, to Technology Director for the past 15 years. During that time, there was a marriage, kids and all that, which did not lend itself to blasting out the electric guitar. So, it was just acoustic guitar for a long, long time, though I would pull out the NEWMAN and just be happy to hold it.
Some years ago, I began playing more electric. I noticed that when I played the NEWMAN, my fingers slipped off the treble E string and off the neck. I finally noticed the string spacing seemed closer on the treble side that it should. A luthier friend of mine agreed to take a closer look and took it apart to see if it needed a shim. He was happy to find the pickups were Tim Shaw PAF Shawbuckers in the guitar. I said they came highly recommended from Strait Music in late 1982.
Anyway, after many attempts to shim, none produced the desired effect and he as pretty frustrated. This led him to conclude that “this neck and this body were never meant to go together in the first place.” While a bit of a shock to hear, it made perfect sense to me, especially given the way the deal was put together. For this non-cash deal to be made, I’m sure an extra body and neck were pulled off the shelf and offered to be put together with hardware provided and no additional fancy adornment. That being said, it should be noted that none of it detracts from the guitar’s value to me. He decided to reposition the bridge. I had no emotional attachment to the bridge and he eventually contacted Mastery and they helped him select a bridge which is on there now. At the same time, I decided, what the heck, since it’s not one of his high dollar custom builds, let’s add a Bigsby to it! Another addition was changing the pickup covers and rings to black and getting rid of the chrome. Another reason I wanted to change the covers to black was because I thought it would look more like Jesse Taylor’s NEWMAN.
Anyway, that’s my long and twisted story of Ray’s NEWMAN and how it came to be from the shop of Ted in Austin. Here it sits treasured in my collection no and forever. Much loved and enjoyed, though it’s no show pony. It brings back fond thoughts of music, musicians, artists, magazines, coworkers, and friends every time I see it and hold it. I don’t know what monetary value it may have, and I don’t care, because it’s not going anywhere. After all, it has my name on it!
Ray Helmers