Andy Timmons

Andy Timmons is a guitarist known for his dynamic control, soulful phrasing, and crystal-clear tone¹. He came up through the band Danger Danger, toured and recorded with Olivia Newton-John and Kip Winger, and has led the Andy Timmons Band, with a long list of credits that also includes Pawn Kings²³. For players, his name is tied almost as closely to gear as to records: his pedalboard has produced one of the densest collections of signature pedals in the industry, spanning overdrive, delay, reverb and compression, built with JHS Pedals, Keeley Electronics, Xotic Effects and Carl Martin.

The sound he is known for: dynamics and a clear tone

Timmons' reputation rests on touch. He is described as a guitarist known for "insane dynamic control, soulful phrasing, and crystal-clear tone"¹, and that description comes from the people who built pedals around his playing. Robert Keeley, who has worked with him on several signature models, says Timmons worked directly with him "to create a pedal that reacts like a living, breathing instrument"¹.

His own words point the same way. Of the Keeley Super AT Mod Overdrive he said the breakup is available "at your dynamic command"⁹, and of the Muse Driver he called it "the ultimate expression of the clean/slightly broken-up tone I've been going for over the last several years"⁹. This is a player whose ideal sound sits right at the edge of clean, where picking hard pushes the amp over and backing off cleans it up.

Two other threads run through everything he plays. The first is echo: he says "delay and echo is a big part of my sound. I mean, it's basically never off"¹⁰. The second is gain staging. Guitar World's Daniel Steinhardt, discussing the Halo, wrote that "Lots of guitar players are defined by their gain-staging [stacking sources of gain such as multiple drive pedals], and Andy Timmons' gain-staging is as good as they come"¹¹. His board is built around that idea: low-gain pedals stacked in stages rather than one high-gain box doing all the work.

From Danger Danger to the Andy Timmons Band

Timmons is known for his solo work and for touring and recording with Danger Danger, Olivia Newton-John, Kip Winger, and many more². With Danger Danger he toured the globe opening for bands such as KISS and Alice Cooper¹². Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio lists his bands as Danger Danger, Pawn Kings, and the Andy Timmons Band³, and Radial Engineering's artist page for him lists ATB and Danger Danger¹³. He accompanied Olivia Newton-John for much of her career¹⁴.

His gear relationships are long ones. He is a Radial Engineering artist, and says of their products: "I've used Radial both live and in the studio and am truly impressed. Great stuff! Radial is at the cutting edge of guitar tone improvement!"¹³. He is also a long-time user and fan of the Carl Martin Compressor/Limiter, and it was his suggestion that led Carl Martin to build a two-preset version, one for subtle rhythm parts and one with harder compression and sustain for solos, so he did not need two compressors on his board¹⁵. He uses the Laney BCC-SPIRAL as a solo artist¹⁶.

The JHS Angry Charlie and his signature overdrive

The story of Timmons' main drive pedal starts with a broken amp. On That Pedal Show, the presenters recounted that the Angry Charlie was "the pedal that Andy Timmons first used when... the effects loop on his amp stopped working," forcing him to go straight into the clean channel with a pedal replicating his amp's drive channel¹⁷. He had found the pedal at The Guitar Sanctuary in McKinney, Texas, where his friend Brian Wader, who knew the tones he liked, told him "I think this is gonna be something you'd like." Timmons plugged it in and says he dug it immediately, getting "a nice warm gain lead tone just right out of the box, straight to a clean amp"¹⁸.

He bought the Angry Charlie in 2013 and began using it as his primary tone, then got in touch with JHS founder Josh Scott about modifying it for his needs⁴. At the time he was using a Mesa Lone Star on its clean channel for years, and he wanted a pedal that could deliver his lead tone on backline gigs where the Mesa was not available¹⁹. Scott asked what he would change about the pedal, and the tweaks became the AT, Timmons' signature overdrive pedal¹⁹¹⁸. From the Angry Charlie, Timmons changed the way the EQ and presence controls moved, and added a variable wattage switch giving the feel of 100, 50, or 25 watts¹⁹.

The signature line grew from there:

• AT (2016): the first JHS signature pedal for Timmons, giving him what JHS calls his unmistakable lead and rhythm tone⁴¹⁸
• AT+: the next iteration, a collaboration between JHS and Timmons that adds a boost section²⁰
• AT Mini: the compact version, part of the signature line as of 2026⁷

JHS describes the AT as "Andy Timmons' signature overdrive pedal that gives Andy his unmistakable lead and rhythm tone"⁴, and the AT Mini carries the same circuit idea in a small box, a pedal Timmons endorses in JHS' demo video²¹⁷. In that video, Josh Scott says of it: "Of everything we make, this AT mini is like the most instant, impossible to find a bad sound"⁷. Timmons himself says the JHS drive has been his main lead tone for many years, "starting with the Angry Charlie, then the AT, and now the AT Plus"¹⁹.

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In the JHS video, Timmons demonstrates the AT Mini and walks through his current rig, including the two Two Rock heads and his use of the AT for heavier sounds⁷.

Keeley signature pedals

Timmons' relationship with Keeley Electronics may be the most productive signature collaboration in his rig. It began with the Halo Dual Echo in 2022, described by Guitar World as bringing his "long-kept-secret 'Halo' tone to the masses"²². Robert Keeley spent something like three years designing the echo pedal for him²³. The collaboration then produced the Super AT Mod Overdrive, the Muse Driver, the Halo Core, and the Nocturne reverb²²⁴²⁵.

The Super AT Mod Overdrive grew out of Timmons' long history with Keeley's modded Boss BD-2 pedals. Premier Guitar's John Bohlinger noted that Timmons had been using those pedals for a long time, and that the mods make the Super AT Mod "just kind of the perfect transparent overdrive," with asymmetrical clipping that results in a more natural, tube-like tone²⁶. Timmons says of it: "The Super AT Mod Overdrive is the ultimate expression of the slightly broken up/clean tone I have been searching for all these years"⁸. He had started that search with the Keeley Blues Driver, a modded stompbox that has been virtually glued to his board since his early exposure to it²²⁷.

The Muse Driver followed as a second collaboration between Robert Keeley and Timmons²⁵. Timmons says of the BD-2 circuit inside it: "Having the original RK modded BD-2 circuit is sheer luxury as that's the circuit that I fell in love with years ago! It still inspires me!"⁹. He adds: "With the Muse Driver and the Halo, I'm in Tone Heaven"⁹.

A table of the Keeley signature line:

Robert Keeley has said of the partnership: "These signature pedals with Andy Timmons are really special"², and in a Vertex Effects interview he noted that "anytime Andy Timmons name is put on... in relationship to the halo... It just does really well"²⁹.

Amps, boosts and the rest of the board

Timmons' current rig runs two Two Rock 100 watt heads in stereo, a Sterling Silver Signature and a Traditional Clean, with the Halo dual echo and Nocturne in the loop, a Mark III driver as a boost, and the AT for heavy sounds⁷. Earlier, the Mesa Lone Star on its clean channel was his amp for years¹⁹.

In front of the amps he has long used Xotic Effects pedals. His current board carries an RC Booster (V1) and a BB Preamp (standard V1)³⁰, and he used to have a red signature edition of the BB Preamp, a limited run of 3000 that has long been discontinued³⁰³. That signature BB Preamp, capable of 30dB+ clean boost and overdrive tones, was a reincarnation of the original BB Preamp that first hit the market in 2005, and the original became a staple overdrive pedal on Andy's pedalboard that is still part of his signature sound³¹. He also seems to use the Xotic Effects XW-1 Wah pretty consistently¹⁴, and uses a Carl Martin Dual Compressor as a current signature pedal¹⁴. His Ibanez signature guitars offer an HSS platform, which he says makes the Super AT Mod a drive pedal for all positions on the five-way selector switch⁸.

Delay: the Halo

The Halo Dual Echo is Timmons' signature delay with Keeley Electronics and carries his signature setting⁵. It offers up to 1500 milliseconds of delay time and five delay settings: Quarter, Dotted Eighth, Halo, Bucket Brigade and Tape⁵. Run in stereo it provides true-stereo imaging³². The pedal distills a sound he built over decades: he previously used a couple of Echoplex EP-3s, then two Electro-Harmonix Memory Mans running into each other, then a Strymon TimeLine that was "kind of replicating those things, but I'm a simpler guy"²²¹⁰. On That Pedal Show, the presenters described the Halo sound as two Memory Mans run together, which he calls a halo, and noted "It's been at the core of his sound forever"⁶. GuitarPlayer's Jude Gold reported that Timmons gigged in an earlier era with two vintage Memory Man analog delays run in series, with foot-operable levers attached to the mix knobs, and that his go-to echo setting on the Halo is preset 1A³³.

Guitar World's Daniel Steinhardt, who interviewed Timmons about the pedal, called it "my favorite compact delay pedal. Sonically, it's astonishing"¹¹. MusicRadar's Jonathan Horsley noted that Timmons rarely has the Halo off and calls it the "ultimate dual echo sound"²³. A streamlined version, the Halo Core, followed in 2024, around 50% wider than the original but with simplified controls²⁸²³.

Reverb: the Nocturne

Reverb is the newest addition, and a notable one, because Timmons was never a reverb player. As he told MusicRadar: "The way that I've gotten reverb effect has always been through delays. Oddly enough, I was never a reverb guy"²⁴. On That Pedal Show the presenters made the same point, that he never normally uses reverb, which is why the Nocturne is a big deal⁶.

The Keeley Nocturne is his signature reverb, co-designed with Robert Keeley, and it is the first fully MIDI controlled pedal from Keeley²⁴⁶. Its tone knob has a secondary function⁶. Timmons says of it: "It's the most inspiring reverb I've ever heard and I just want to play all day basking in its beauty"²⁴, and MusicRadar reported that the Nocturne will be a fixture on his pedalboard for the foreseeable future²⁴.

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In the That Pedal Show video, Dan and Mick demo the Nocturne, discuss its full MIDI control, and place it in the context of Timmons' delay-based approach to ambience⁶.

The JHS AT demo in Timmons' own words

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In JHS' original demo video, Timmons tells the story of finding the Angry Charlie at The Guitar Sanctuary, meeting Josh Scott, and developing the AT, including the variable wattage switch and the subtle tweaks that became his signature pedal¹⁸.

FAQ

What overdrive does Andy Timmons use?

His main drive is his signature line with JHS Pedals: the AT from 2016, then the AT+ with its added boost section, and now the AT Mini⁴²⁰⁷. On the Keeley side he uses the Super AT Mod Overdrive and the Muse Driver²⁷², alongside Xotic BB Preamp and RC Booster pedals on his board¹⁴.

Where did Andy Timmons find his Angry Charlie?

At The Guitar Sanctuary in McKinney, Texas, where his friend Brian Wader suggested it as a pedal he would like¹⁸. He bought it in 2013, used it as his primary tone, and soon contacted Josh Scott about modifying it⁴.

What amps does Andy Timmons use?

Two Two Rock 100 watt heads run in stereo, a Sterling Silver Signature and a Traditional Clean⁷. Earlier he used a Mesa Lone Star on its clean channel for years¹⁹.

Does Andy Timmons run his rig in stereo?

Yes. His two Two Rock heads run in stereo⁷, and the Halo Dual Echo provides true-stereo imaging when run in stereo³².

What delay does Andy Timmons use?

The Keeley Halo Dual Echo, his signature delay, with up to 1500 milliseconds and five delay settings⁵. Before it he used Echoplex EP-3s, two Memory Mans into each other, and a Strymon TimeLine²²¹⁰.

What reverb is on Andy Timmons' pedalboard?

The Keeley Nocturne, his signature reverb and the first fully MIDI controlled pedal from Keeley²⁴⁶. He was never a reverb player before, getting the effect through delays²⁴.

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