Andy Timmons current amp /effects - pics!

unix-guy

Master of RTFM
I had the chance to get up close and personal with Andy Timmons at Vai Academy.

Here is a shot of his Lonestar amp settings and his current pedalboard.

Note that he is using a Strymon to replace his Memory Man delays and he no longer uses the BB Preamp.

He uses the Carl Martin compressor primarily as a clean boost... Not for compression, except on it's second channel where he does the squishy stuff.

He also uses an RC Boost a lot.

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The thing I find cool is looking at the photos and knowing most everything needed to replicate his rig is in the Axe-Fx III. No more flipping gear, trying to figure out how to buy more pedals. Simply open a blank preset and drag-n-drop the appropriate blocks. Sure, finding the correct model and tweaking it to copy certain sounds may take some time, but it's a lot less expensive and a lot easier than trying to explain why you need more gear.
 
I just love pictures of pedal boards, period. And this is a very cool looking pedal board. Whenever I work at a stage at a festival I always take pictures. Gotta feed the pedal board pr0n.. I wouldn't want to tour with this rig though. All those pedals and cables, too much chance of something going wrong eventually.
 
One challenge is that he is using a loop switcher with programmable routing, so anything connected to that can be anywhere in the chain at any time :)

He also likes to "stack" drives - he did so with the RCB and the TS while working out a tone for playing a particular song for us.

Dan from That Pedal Show created that switcher and also built that board. He was planning to drop by the Academy but wasn't able to make it.

After hearing Andy play a number of times in various settings over the week, he is definitely my new tone hero. His sound is glorious in person!
 
A couple other interesting notes that Andy mentioned specifically:

The Bass on the amp is pretty much off. In his words, "it's pretty wooly".

He likes using the RCB because it's pretty transparent and he uses the Bass control to cut bass before the amp.

Funny thing is, I did the same things when I started playing with that model in the Axe Fx several months ago, with no idea of how his rig was setup aside from what amp.

Also, the Blues Driver is a Keeley modded one.

And the 2 "@" pedals on there are different iterations with different controls. I seem to recall he is currently only using 1, but I don't remember for sure.
 
Yes, the Lone Star is no different from many other Mesa amps, so you’ll want to cut bass before gain.
 
And the 2 "@" pedals on there are different iterations with different controls. I seem to recall he is currently only using 1, but I don't remember for sure.

I asked Andy about this while we were talking in the pub at one point. The newer, 2-button @ pedal is his go-to for mid gain (without boost) to higher gain (with built-in 808-style boost engaged). The older, 4-knob style @ pedal shares a loop with the Muffuletta and is not usually used stand-alone. Andy said he typically doesn't like the sound of a fuzz into a clean amp, so he uses that second @ pedal in place of a dirty amp channel.

He likes using the RCB because it's pretty transparent and he uses the Bass control to cut bass before the amp.

Yes, the Lone Star is no different from many other Mesa amps, so you’ll want to cut bass before gain.

Indeed. He also uses the MXR EQ primarily for this, though he mentioned wanting to try out a midi-switchable EQ to get more options out of the board space.
 
One challenge is that he is using a loop switcher with programmable routing, so anything connected to that can be anywhere in the chain at any time :)

He also likes to "stack" drives - he did so with the RCB and the TS while working out a tone for playing a particular song for us.

Dan from That Pedal Show created that switcher and also built that board. He was planning to drop by the Academy but wasn't able to make it.

After hearing Andy play a number of times in various settings over the week, he is definitely my new tone hero. His sound is glorious in person!
Agree. The guy's tone is amazing and one of the nicest guys in the world. My favorite player
 
The thing I find cool is looking at the photos and knowing most everything needed to replicate his rig is in the Axe-Fx III. No more flipping gear, trying to figure out how to buy more pedals. Simply open a blank preset and drag-n-drop the appropriate blocks. Sure, finding the correct model and tweaking it to copy certain sounds may take some time, but it's a lot less expensive and a lot easier than trying to explain why you need more gear.
Riiiight good luck getting that tone out of a modeler
 
I had the chance to get up close and personal with Andy Timmons at Vai Academy.

Here is a shot of his Lonestar amp settings and his current pedalboard.

Note that he is using a Strymon to replace his Memory Man delays and he no longer uses the BB Preamp.

He uses the Carl Martin compressor primarily as a clean boost... Not for compression, except on it's second channel where he does the squishy stuff.

He also uses an RC Boost a lot.

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Unix, you never cease to pull something of interest out of the internet! Awesome find, thanks for posting
 
AT is a beast. His tone is amazing and he really comes through with whatever it is he’s using. I still have my former pedalboard and loved it. One thing I never added but really needed was one of those switchers. Tap dancing was a pain in the ass.

on another note (because someone said they had a chat with Andy at a pub).....I find it great that these days many or our heroes are “accessible” to some degree through online. I write to Andy once years ago while recovering from back surgery. Guy wrote me back! I had some interaction with Neal Schon on social media as well (very engaging with his fans). If you would have told me back in the day that I’d talk to some of my idols I would have laughed. Then on the other hand the Internet helped ruin the industry. 😉
 
I don't know why people have not made Andy Timmons a household name by now....Us guitarists, especially higher caliber tastes [or so I like to pride ourselves lol] on this forum obviously love him - but ill be honest, whenever I mention him to anyone who isn't into "shred" (and I mean that in the most general sense, in this case, simply virtuoso guitarist of blues persuasion) they have no clue who I am talking about

What's even more troublesome to me is those who know Andy Timmons don't know Michael Lee Firkins, who in my humble estimate, is the single most important, innovative, and just the most amazingly talented and unique blues based shredder Ive ever heard. I absolutely love both of these guys, and I wish they did a collaboration.
 
Lmao
Most diplomatic schooling of the day
Kudos TG3K
Must be a helix owner hahahahaha rofl
Analog gear is different though and sounds great even if I also just simply prefer my FAS stuff. But I can understand people who prefer turning and understanding knobs rather then editing parameters on a screen that not always that clear to understand.

Edit : bloody nice pedalboard !
 
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