Newtone Archtop Strings

These great strings are now available through eBay; see the previous review here.

Review – “Newtone Archtop” series strings

Who are they for?

All Jazz guitarists who want a great sounding string which has better intonation than flatwounds and a smoother feel than normal round wounds.

I’ve known Malcolm Newton for many years as a supplier of strings to our shop, but more than that over the years he has supported our business including the guitar shows of the past and has always been a straight forward and honest businessman. You can find out more about Newtone Strings philosophy and range of products from the website

With that said about Malcolm’s strings I have to point out that I honestly only use them because they are the best (in my humble opinion!)

I used to use D’Addario Chromes (flatwounds) for years, mainly because I didn’t really think of playing anything else because that’s what jazz guitarists use right? I used to like the sound of them after they’d been on for a couple of months (hated them when they were new) but they used to sound very out of tune intonation wise at that point. It was when I changed to my current Eastman guitar that I tried and loved the Archtop strings, flatwound strings just sounded bad to my ears on my solid wood archtop.  I didn’t think that roundwound strings would be any good but then I discovered that they were in fact doublewound strings and as such have more in common with autoharp or piano strings! Basically in a nutshell, normal electric strings have one winding around a central core whereas doublewound (you guessed it!) have 2 separate windings which are thinner which gives a few benefits.

-You can pretty much go a gauge higher than normal and the tension feels more or less the same

-Seems to have a higher output than normal strings

-Don’t feel ‘sticky’ like flatwounds can do

-Less finger squeak than normal round wounds

In common with flatwounds I pretty much keep mine on the guitar until they go rusty!

Available in gauges

11,15,22w,30,40,50

12,16,24w,32,42,52

13,17,26w,36,46,56

14,18,28w,38,48,58

7 string and custom gauges also available to order

Dan Johnson