A childhood dream

The Austin Special was designed by former Keith Richards guitar tech and Texan luthier Ted Newman-Jones.I’ve first seen his design in David Dalton's Stones bio, "The first twenty years", and fell in love straight with this dynamic, offset-waist shape 5 string guitar, that Keith Richards used during the late seventies, but I had to wait some ten years before I got one that shows some authenticity with the original 5 string prototype.

I first saw these, mass produced in a Chandler ad from a 93 Guitar World mag. Although the ads did not refer to Ted N-J, but the presence of the 5-string model as well as the "Austin" brand made it clear. A few years later I managed to get hold of one in a local guitar pawnshop in Budapest. Mine is labeled No.23 and made in 1992. There ‘s no “made in” tag anywhere on the guitar, but the materials, feel and finish show a close resemblance to my MIJ strat, so I believe the guitar has a Far East origin. It is lightweight and relatively small guitar, with good balance. It has a simple, offset waist, contoured black body with chrome hardware, and a pearl binding. I believe they came in off white or black exclusively. Mine's black, but this was the only stock photo I've found so far.

The two-piece maple neck is scarf-jointed at about 2/3 of its length, closer to the tilted head stock, otherwise it is very similar to a standard telecaster neck. The headstock is strongly tilted backwards, and feature vintage style Kluston keys.

The neck has a nice, vintage satin lacquer finish and feels good to touch. The bridge humbucker is in fact two singles in a line, of which one can be muted by pulling the tone control. I tend to use this feature: I play single most of the time, and only push it form more gain when necessary. This forms a H(S) / S arrangement, that consists of 3 lipstick pickups made by Chandler The bridge is hard-tail strat syle with string through body and provides excellent sustain. The lipstick pickups have a transparent sound with low output.

I added an EMG afterburner push/pull booster for some extra gain. This guitar sported a retro look before retro was hip, having the klusons, the pearl binding, lipsticks, and on top of all that: chicken head controls. While providing a visual feedback, these turn a bit too easily, and I tend to turn down volume accidentally when I strung a big chord. Also, the push and pull mechanism easily turns the tone flat. I usually turn the tone midways between flat and sharp, since the guitar has a treble sound already. What else can I say? It's a classic, rare, and excellent guitar, which looks cool, plays great, and capable of a great sound with the help of some pedals or onboard gadgets.