“One heck of a rock ’n’ roll vision that sounds glorious and has huge tonal flexibility. Oh, and it doesn’t look like a Fender!” Newman Honeycomb Senior review

What is it?

It’s pretty rare that we get to document a guitar from blueprint to production, but that’s been the case with Newman Guitars, a US company founded by Jeff Smith and dedicated to continuing the work of roadie-turned-luthier Ted Newman Jones III after his adventures with The Rolling Stones during the ’70s. Latterly, Jeff befriended Ted and digitised his design, which Ted signed off before he passed away in 2016.

The USA Newman models are, and always have been, built by various independent makers, but the tie-up with Cream T here in the UK has slowly created a more production-led line-up, which started with the 5 String (the original Newman design intended for Keith Richards) followed by a single-pickup Honeycomb Junior GT-40 six-string.

Now, we have this dual-pickup Senior. As we’ve documented, Billy F Gibbons is onboard, not least with his collaboration with Cream T pickups, and he’s not only playing USA Newmans but has recently strapped-on the UK-made models, too.

The first run of these dual-pickup Senior models comes in a trio of Ferrari-inspired colours, specified by Billy G, which keeps up the automotive vibe of that Junior GT-40.

Effectively red, black and white, each with contrasting binding around the top edge of the body, the gloss finish also covers the neck back and headstock. It gives a rather simplistic look to the guitars, but there is quite a bit more going on here, hidden from view.

Firstly, as the name indicates, the body is chambered in a honeycomb pattern then capped with a thin maple top. The maple neck is chambered then reinforced with dual carbon graphite rods and features an asymmetric profile.

While the chambered body precludes any contouring (the standard 45mm deep slab body is flat to the front and back), the outline is totally unique and very practical. It’s quite a visual statement, too, like you’re joining a rather exclusive club.

As with the original Ted Newman design, the fingerboard sports 24 frets and here it’s cleanly bound with that same tortoiseshell-coloured plastic, which trims the back-angled, six-in-a-line headstock.

The neck screws to the body on a pretty standard extending heel with some contouring on the treble side, the four screws sitting in inset washers – there’s no neckplate.

The apparent simplicity of the design is echoed with the Music City wrapover bridge, designed by Joe Glaser and Nick Drushel of Glaser Instruments and championed by Billy Gibbons. It’s classic wrapover in style but with numerous improvements, including the intonated ridge and very firm mounting to the studs so that the bridge doesn’t tip forward like many originals.

The nickel plating is matched by the two quite closely spaced covered humbuckers in cream plastic surrounds that match the truss rod cover and switch tip. The push-fit Tele-style knurled knobs look to be chrome plated, but they certainly don’t spoil the fun. It’s quite the sharp-dressed guitar!

Specs

• PRICE: $3,499/£2,999 (inc gigbag)
• ORIGIN: UK
• TYPE: Original offset-shaped chambered electric
• BODY: Honeycomb-chambered mahogany with thin maple top
• NECK: Maple, chambered with dual carbon graphite rods, asymmetric Newman profile, bolt-on
• SCALE LENGTH: 629mm (24.75”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Bone/43.6mm
• FINGERBOARD: Tortoiseshell bound rosewood, m-o-p dot inlays, 254mm (10”) radius
• FRETS: 24, medium jumbo
• HARDWARE: Music City wrapover bridge, enclosed Gotoh tuners – chrome/nickel plating
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 51.5mm 
• ELECTRICS: 2x Cream T Whiskerbuckers with Guitar-X mounting, 3-way toggle pickup selector, master volume, master tone (both controls with modern CTS pull-switch pots for individual pickup coil-splitting)
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.05/6.71
• OPTIONS: You can choose your pickups on order from Cream T’s extensive range. Once you register your purchase you’ll receive a Cream T Nidge P-90-style single coil, T-shirt and other goodies FOC
• RANGE OPTIONS: Honeycomb Junior GT-40 (Baby Blue & Blackout finishes) from £2,999 (2x pickups included). ‘Ultimate Billy Edition’ (£3,499) comes with 5x Guitar-X mounted Cream T pickups. Newman 5 String with dual fixed pickups (£1,999)
• LEFT-HANDERS: Not yet
• FINISHES: Rossa Corsa (as reviewed), Nero Daytona, Bianco Avus – gloss polyurethane
• CONTACT: Newman Guitars

Playability and sounds

The deceptively simple style extends to the neck. Its profile is pretty conventional in dimension but subtly asymmetrical in shape – flatter on the treble side and rounder on the bass, which actually makes the neck seem a bit beefier than its dimensions suggest, but in a good way, to this writer at least.

It’s more of medium size, approximately 21.3mm deep at the 1st and 23.2mm by the 12th, with a good width at the nut of 44.6mm, and 36.5mm string spacing. The fingerboard radius is a standard 254mm (10 inches), and while the design almost suggests a longer Fender scale, it’s a shorter 629mm (24.75 inches) in reality.

With very well-fettled medium jumbo fretwire (measuring 2.65mm wide by 1.2mm high) and a very good setup, it’s a really good player, and intonation from that Music City bridge is pretty close to being 100 per cent spot on. It feels great strapped on and a little SG-like played seated.

This Senior is a little heavier than the featherweight GT-40 we spent a little time with, which accounts for a subtly more conventional drive, and it turns out that, for structural reasons, the body wood has changed from obeche to mahogany.

Changes aside, you hear a hint of that chambering when unplugged, particularly on the lower strings, which adopt an almost semi-solid thinline character but enveloped with a long ringing sustain. This is no jazz box!

Our guitar shipped with a pair of Guitar-X mounted Cream T Whiskerbuckers (you can order any pair from the Cream T range, plus you’ll also get a free Nidge humbucking P-90-style pickup when you register your purchase). They may be cloned from Billy’s prized ‘Pearly Gates’, but we wouldn’t say this Newman Senior sounds like a ’Burst. It’s less wide-sounding but with plenty of midrange, though far from over-nasal.

We’d suggest it all sounds like quite a neutral platform, and the Whiskerbucker at the bridge is slightly fuller and less defined than the same pickup on a Cream T Aurora. How do we know that? It’s another facet of the Guitar-X pickup swapping: you can quickly listen to the same pickup on different guitars.

Speaking of which, the neck-pickup position here is closer to the bridge compared with that Cream T Aurora because the Guitar-X system requires quite a large rectangular rear cavity and its positioning is dictated by the offset slope of the treble cutaway.

Put it this way, the neck-pickup position here is as far north as it can go! This obviously affects what we hear – and that’s a tighter, less deep response from the neck pickup.

The dual-pickup mix also sounds more Strat-like – less wide than a more classic single-cut – and especially so when you engage the coil-split for each pickup.

Here, the inner slug coils of each humbucker are voiced, which are actually spaced about the same distance apart as the bridge and middle single coils on a Stratocaster.

Individually, then, the splits do sound a little bright and thin, but in this closer-proximity middle-position mix they give some real character – a different voice – which this Newman has in spades.

For a standard fixed-pickup guitar, this would be the point where we’d end our sound test. But with the Guitar-X pickup swapping, it’s just the beginning. This is no gimmick.

While the Whiskerbuckers provide pretty effortless roots-to-classic-rock voices and really suit the ringing vibe of the guitar and its construction, swapping them for a set of the Cream T-made Newman Sticky Fingers, which have a slightly beefier midrange, adds a little more clout and really suits the platform.

Likewise, putting a Cream T Banger & Mash at the bridge revoices the guitar with a steelier Fender-y bite. Same guitar, different flavours: no soldering. The Newman shape and geometry makes for a great slide guitar, too – we’d love to test out Cream T’s DT Derek Trucks set!

Cream T also offers proper humbucking-sized single coils such as the Duchess and Nidge P-90s, while the Single Shots turn the Senior into a pristine clean machine.

Of course, if pick-up hum is a problem with those, just slot a humbucker back in; no need to change your guitar. It’s just the tip of the tonal iceberg, but it should come with a word of warning: being in charge of what you want to hear, whenever you want, is really quite addictive. We’re hooked.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

Let’s be honest, not everyone is going to enjoy the ‘radical’ outline here. It’s a cult classic, a ’70s vision that appealed to and was used by plenty of rockstars back in the day.

Overall, the guitar is built to a high standard and even though the differences such as the neck reinforcement and honeycomb chambering are hidden, their effect is evident.

This is a very stable bolt-on that barely needed tuning during our test time, and while it’s about 0.43kg (1lb) heavier than that earlier Honeycomb Junior, at 3.05kg (6.72lbs) it’s still lightweight and very comfortable.

It rings like a bell, plays like butter, and even with just a pair of Whiskerbuckers it sounds top drawer, while the Guitar-X pickup-swapping potential really shouldn’t be overlooked.

Yes, the finish options are rather standard; the gloss polyester finish is hardly ‘boutique’ in style. If you live on a neck pickup, it’s probably not for you as the positioning here means it sounds more like a trimmer middle-meets-neck pickup.

Then, of course, there’s in-house competition from the recently released Cream T Standard models, of which the Crossfire is a more conventional twin-humbucker bolt-on. It’s only slightly heavier, too, but still features the same Guitar-X pickup swapping and checks in at half the price.

Guitar World verdict: With what is a totally unique specification, this is one heck of a rock ’n’ roll vision. It’s no cheap date, but it sounds glorious and has huge tonal flexibility thanks to the pickup-swapping system. Oh, and it doesn’t look like a Fender!

• “An open-tuned five-string guitar is unique and will clearly have niche appeal… but you just can’t help bashing out those classic Keith Richards riffs”: Newman 5 String review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.