I know it might not mean much coming from me lol but the plain truth is James has been working with Boogie on an amp for at least a good 3 or 4 years now. If you have paid close attention to the hints on my site over the last few years, this doesn't come as any surprise =)
People said the same thing about pickups, that James would never have a signature set...and now they love them. Boogie never releasing a signature head? Did we forget about the King Snake that was just released?
There's always that old argument of tone being in the fingers/hands and that's clearly evident when it comes to James. Give him anything with a decent amount of gain and he's gonna sound like him---no boost needed. He's been playing Marshall/british style amps since the beginning and has always used his Jose Marshall since the black album. He's used rectos since the mid 1990s for one off shows and backstage. His old triaxis setup had one doing the recto tone while the other did the C+ tone. If anyone knows how to dial in his tone without a rhythm boost, it's James Hetfield. He still uses his Klon as a boost for solos, but that's it.
The IIC+ has still been a big part of his sound but we need to remember it's the player not the gear which determines the final outcome. Death Magnetic was primarily his old C+ but the resulting tone wasn't what people imagine when they say he should just bring back the old gear and be done with it.
As far as Boogie goes and what they say...well...we know how that is, haha. They said they would never release a sig? Well there's the Santana King Snake. They said there was no need for a Mark V? Well we know how that turned out. Never release a standalone EQ? We got that this year too. Of course they will shy away and say certain things but that doesn't mean it's set in stone.
The bottom line is, like anything else, nothing is guaranteed. We will just have to wait and see what develops but at this point, yeah he has been and is working with Boogie on an amp =)
