Friedman Jose Arredondo Tribute Amp Head
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The store is open 10am - 6pm Monday to Saturday and 11am - 5pm Sunday and bank holidays.
The stock information shows the quantity of units that are available to purchase at the Guildford store and the quantity of units that are available at our off-site Guildford warehouse. These stock levels are updated in real time.
Our Click and Collect service is available at our Guildford store from 10am - 6pm Monday to Saturday, and 11am - 5pm on Sunday. You can either choose click and collect as your delivery option online or, during store opening hours, call our sales team at 01483 456777 to place a 10% deposit.
If you have placed your order online, you will receive a confirmation email of your order and a separate follow-up text or email to confirm when your item is ready for collection.
Please do not come to the store before you have received the follow-up message, as your order may not yet be ready at the store.
If the only available stock is in our off-site warehouse it can be brought to the store location for you to try - you just need to contact the store within opening hours. Please note any requests received after 3.30pm will not arrive at the store until the following morning.
Please be aware that, unless you have paid a deposit to reserve the item, it will continue to be free, both online and in-store, for another customer to buy. Therefore we would advise you to place a 10% deposit by either using the on-line click and collect service or calling us 01483 456777.
SKU: JOSE100
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Product Description
Dave Friedman knows a thing or two about modding amps. He’s earned a reputation as one of the most passionate guitar amp designers in recent years. Yet Friedman, like many of his peers, owes a thing or two to the late amp legend José Arredondo, an elusive yet prolific technician responsible for some of the greatest gain & amp mods in amplification lore.
To commemorate Arredondo’s profound impact, Friedman teamed up with his family to distil the essence of his most popular mods into a single 100w amp head!
José Arredondo: the ‘amp wiz’ responsible for rock & metal’s greatest tones
Widely considered an amp modification OG, José Arredondo made a name for himself working on amps for the rock & metal elite in the 80s and beyond. James Hetfield, Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen – a real who’s who.
As an amp technician, he earned his stripes working for everyone from Vox to Ampeg, eventually starting up his own amp repair & modification workshop. Dave Friedman considers Arredondo’s subsequent mods to be precursors to many modern Marshall-inspired amps – including Friedman themselves.
For Dave, Arredondo was more than a mysterious figure tweaking amps for A-list guitarists – he was a personal acquaintance. He recalls getting his own amp modded at Arredondo’s workshop: “I had the pleasure of having an amplifier modified when I was about 18 years at his house, here in Sherman Oaks at the time. His shop was there, all the amps everywhere, a striped Eddie Van Halen on the wall – you had to move sideways through all the rubble! He was awesome.”
The Friedman Jose amp – what we know so far
Dave has worked on over 100 Jose-modded amps over the years, so he knows them inside out. Who better then to build an amp to commemorate the legend, complete with the blessing of his family? Here’s what we know about the Friedman Jose amp so far:
- At its core, it’s a 4-input EL34 powered 100 Watt Marshall-style head
- Multiple versions of Arredondo’s mod in a single head, based on his favourites from the 1968-75 era
- Two different style presence circuits: N presence (more mid-focused character) and V presence (vintage Marshall, very bright)
- Improved master volume switching: pre-EQ master volume with clipping diodes (later popularised by Cameron, Fortin etc.)
- Bypassable FX loop