Yesterday I was fortunate enough to attend an Andy Timmons clinic, where he was promoting his re-issued Ibanez signature guitar.
The clinic was held in a tiny underground music venue that holds about 200 people max. He played a few songs, did some Q&A and finished off with some more tunes.
It's well known that he has great tone but I wasn't prepared for how utterly gorgeous his clean and distorted tones are, without a doubt the best I've ever heard live. He also has amazing technique, he can seemingly play anything.
But the one thing that completely overshadowed both his great technique and tone was his sense of melody.
He plays with a lyricism that Satriani can only dream of.
We spend so much time thinking of tone and chops but the real magic is the music, and Andy demonstrated that perfectly.
He was truly inspirational.
After the performance he moved to the adjacent guitar shop for an hour and a half long signing session. I was able to have a chat with him and he's extremely friendly and open. We talked about the time he played at the Cardiff Ice Rink, supporting KISS, and how the water in Texas must contain something special because so many amazing guitar players come from there.
Sadly his management had a no photo rule so I couldn't get any pics to show you guys, but the good news is that he's touring in September.
For any other Timmons fans out there I found this demo video on the Mesa Boogie site that might interest you.
http://www.mesaboogie.com/gallery_artist/video/AndyTimmons-hi.html