“Absurd amount of talent”: Andy Timmons is in the studio with Joe Bonamassa – and the two melody masters are cooking up a virtuosic solo storm

Andy Timmons’ new solo album is set to feature a mouth-watering collaboration with Joe Bonamassa, whose contributions to the upcoming effort have been teased in a new clip posted to Instagram by the record’s producer, Josh Smith.

Former Danger Danger guitarist and Ibanez signature artist Timmons is currently tracking the follow-up to 2022 solo album, Electric Truth. The recently published behind-the-scenes clip shows the two revered blues guitarists trade lightning licks atop a Hammond organ-spiced track.

While Bonamassa sets to work on the freboard of his Gibson Les Paul, Timmons, armed with his Ibanez ATZ10P-STM, can be seen bounding about the studio full of energy. 

It’s a collaboration that has already got blues guitar fans hot under the collar, with one commenter simply stating: “Absurd amount of talent”.

“40 seconds is all you get,” reads Smith’s caption to the video, we imagine in reference to the solo JoBo gets to unleash on the upcoming record. “Such a joy working with my friend, the legend Andy Timmons again this week. If you’d have told 13 year old me I’d be producing my second album for someone who is such an influence and hero, he’d have never believed you.

“Can’t wait for you all to hear the material Andy brought to the table on this one, killer stuff,” he adds. “Special thanks to my brother Joe Bonamassa for making the hang and having some fun with us on a tune.”

The other clip posted by Smith shows Timmons and his assembled band running through another song. During the clip, Timmons wields what appears to be his ’65 Fender Stratocaster, in a not-too-common step away from his trusty Ibanez models. He uses the guitar to unfurl a lightly driven and highly soulful solo.

Timmons is back in the studio following the NAMM 2024 launch of his new Keeley Electronics overdrive pedal, the Muse Driver.

“I don’t have anything in my sonic world that’s anything like it,” he exclaimed of the pedal, which features germanium diodes for “all-out” fuzz tones as well as offering transparent clean boosts. 

“Holy shit, that’s insane!” he beamed in a demo vid. “When we crank that drive up with the germanium engaged it’s a super smooth, singing lead tone. I don’t have anything in my sonic world that’s anything like it.”

The launch of the pedal capped a busy NAMM for Timmons, with a new signature Ibanez ATZ300 prototype on display. He also rubbed shoulders with Tim Henson of Polyphia, stating the Texas-based pair will get together for a “tone quest” in the near future.  

In a surprise to absolutely no one, Joe Bonamassa has been rather busy himself. He’s continued to collaborate with Epiphone, with the partnership’s latest creation coming in the form of a signature 1963 SG Custom. Last month, Guitarist hailed it as “a stunning-looking guitar that covers pretty much any musical base”.

The hardworking bluesman also took Guitar World readers to Nerdville last month during a video in which he divulged the details on a very special “bronchitis” Stratocaster. In his GW column, he explains the back story of the 1969 “maple cap” Strat and why he’s named it after a not-very-sexy inflammation of the airways.

There is no more information about the forthcoming Timmons record as things stand, with production still in the works. Expect to hear more news from Guitar World as soon as we have it.

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