This month on Bought & Sold, it is the turn of Andy Timmons to share his life in gear. Think of Timmons and you might associate him with Ibanez, with whom he has collaborated on one of the most versatile signature guitars on the market, or maybe Keeley Electronics, with signature overdrive and delay pedals bearing his name.
But that’s not the full story. Here we take Timmons back to the start, making him confront a painful moment when his first good electric guitar was stolen, and then talk happier times. Timmons has this uncanny knack of finding a ‘60s Strat that does the business.
He even shares some gear-buying advice along the way.
What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money?
“God, it was a long chain of guitars. I had my first job when I was 13, and every couple of weeks or months my pay would be used to try to trade up to the next level. The first guitar I had that was really good was an Elektra Les Paul copy. It would have been about 1976, and I bought it from ABC Music on Main Street in Evansville, Indiana, where I grew up.
“It was a bolt-on maple neck, cream-coloured Les Paul – unusual but really cool-looking. It was my main guitar until 1981 when it got stolen from my car. Can you imagine the heartbreak of that? I loved it so much. I left it in my car for 30 minutes, went to check on it, and it was already gone. Man, I must have cried for a week.”
What was the last guitar you bought and why?
“It was a black ’63 Fender Strat. I was in Bozeman, Montana, and went down to a guitar store. I walked in and tried this one, and it’s just magic. It’s been refinished and the neck is a bit fatter and rounder, but it just has a vibe to it. And the fact that it was refinished makes it a bit more ‘affordable’ (laughs).
“I think the refin was done in the factory in the early ’70s. It’s nitro and it’s got a really nice patina and wear to it. I was born in ’63 and this guitar was built a week after I was born in August; I was born July 26, so that’s kind of cool. It’s my birth-week guitar, and it’s pretty rare. It felt like it was meant to be.”
What’s the most incredible find or bargain you’ve ever had when buying guitars?
“I got a ’65 Strat on eBay that had been really poorly refinished and had some issues with the neck, and pieces and chunks of wood missing. Somebody hadn’t treated this guitar very well – but that made it kind of affordable. The pickups were original and I thought, ‘I can take a gamble on it.’
“I had my luthier strip it down past the red refinish down to the original ’burst, but he couldn’t save the original finish. So I had him refinish it to look like the white Strat that Hendrix would play or like the one on Jeff Beck’s Wired album cover.
“And you know what? It may be the best-sounding Strat I’ve got. It’s just got this thing to it. It turned out to be a good investment because it’s a working guitar that I’ve used on a lot of records and one that I still use quite a bit.”
What’s the strongest case of buyer’s remorse you’ve ever had after buying gear?
“Good question. I’m looking around my very crowded studio and I’ve been lucky because most of what I’ve acquired works pretty well for me. But I got a Marshall JTM45 Plexi head and cab that somebody famous had owned, and it looks amazing, but I haven’t used it.
“Maybe if I get into a Bluesbreakers phase, or I get the feeling, I will – but I tend to be a 100-watt guy, so I should really let it go to another player or collector. If I spend the money, I want it to be a tool I use and not just something that looks cool in the studio.”
After my Elektra Les Paul was stolen, I replaced it with a brand-new Gibson Tobacco Sunburst Standard. I wanted it because it looked like Ace Frehley’s
Have you ever sold a guitar that you now intensely regret letting go?
“After my Elektra Les Paul was stolen, I replaced it with a brand-new Gibson Tobacco Sunburst Standard. I wanted it because it looked like Ace Frehley’s (laughs). It looked like the one Ace played in KISS’s early years, but I lost that one at a pawn shop in Denton, Texas.
“It was lean times back in the ’80s, probably a year or two before I joined Danger Danger, so money was tight. I hear stories that someone in Dallas, Texas, still owns it. I think that at some point, I’d like to try to track that down for sentimental reasons.”
What’s your best buying tip for anyone looking for their ultimate guitar?
“You’ve got to play it. You’ve got to have it in your hands. Man, you’ve just got to find one that feels good in your hands and that encourages you to play. There’s got to be something that draws you to it.
“It can be cosmetic or physical, too. Guitars can be such attractive things, and you want something that’s going to draw you to it by the vibe and the sound of it. When you have it in your hands, it has to be something that really fits you.”
When was the last time you stopped and looked in a guitar shop window or browsed online, and what were you looking at?
“It was Dave Davies’ ’58 Gibson Flying V. I stared at that guitar on The Kinks’ Greatest Hits album cover when I was kid, and it was just the coolest vibe.
“That guitar was just acquired by a guitar shop in Seattle called Emerald City Guitars, and I don’t know if it’s for sale yet, but I was looking at photos of it. Then I was also looking at a cream-coloured Elektra Les Paul from ‘76, like the one I had, so we’ll see how that goes!”
If forced to make a choice, would you rather buy a really good guitar and a cheap amp, or a cheap electric guitar and a top-notch high-end guitar amp?
If the guitar isn’t happening, no great amp is going to improve that. Well… it can improve it – but it’s not going to save it
“Ah, the age-old question. It’s got to start with the guitar because if the guitar isn’t happening, no great amp is going to improve that. Well… it can improve it – but it’s not going to save it.
“We all know that tone comes from how we attack the strings, and the fingers on our fretting hand, so if those things aren’t resonating before you plug it in, you’re at a deficit.”
If you could only use Humbuckers or single coils for the rest of your career, which would it be and why?
“I’ve got to go with single coils because I’ve got a single-coil-tap on the humbucker in the bridge of my main guitar, and the neck pickup sounds like a single coil. There’s something so dynamic and immediate – but also delicate and revealing about single coils.
“That’s where I want to spend the rest of my years. That’s why I’m working on a custom single coil with DiMarzio. I’m trying to come up with my ultimate iteration of the classic single-coil pickup.”
Andy’s go-to rig
“I’ve got my signature Ibanez ATZ10P-STM, which has the single-coil-tap now. I’ve also worked with JHS (Pedals) on the AT overdrive, which is awesome, and Keeley on the Mk3 Driver. The Keeley is a custom boost/gain pedal that we collaborated on, and this is the third iteration, which is like a modded (Boss) Blues Driver. So that’s always on my ’board.
“As for amps, I’ve used the Mesa/Boogie Lone Star for many years; they’ve been long discontinued, though it’s a great circuit.
“I’ve recently been drawn back to my ’68 Marshall Plexi, and Suhr makes an awesome version of that called the SL68. I’m using those heads as a clean platform for stereo, and those feed two Mesa/Boogie 2×12 Rectifier cabs. That’s my main tone for gigs lately.”
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