Friedman Jose Arredondo Signature Amplifier

[ejecta]

My biggest apprehension is that I’ve yet to see a Friedman NOT depreciate massively.

Some gear does that more than others but most modern gear doesn’t hold its value like a vintage piece would.

 

[LCW]

Some gear does that more than others but most modern gear doesn’t hold its value like a vintage piece would.

Agreed but new Friedmans seem to not hold up even as well as new Marshalls or Bogners or Soldanos. Maybe the Jose will be different

 

[Jarick]

I could be wrong but I think literally every manufacturer in the music industry who is not big enough to stock items at Sweetwater, Guitar Center, etc. does this.

At the very least they require a deposit up front. Pretty much all of them. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I also won't do this. I have before and never will again. With that said there are companies out there like Friedman for example who i fully believe would never screw anyone over. Either way it is a gamble that I won't take.

I’d guess it’s a European distributor thing. They may not want to get stuck with a bunch of expensive gear that people decide they don’t want after they order. Paying up front would weed out some of the cancellations, as would putting down a deposit. Even 10 boutique amps would be $20-30k sitting around.

The bigger the shop or distributor, the more they can absorb extra inventory and they can turn the gear around quicker as they have more customers.

It’s not ideal but I could see why they would have that policy.

 

[ejecta]

Agreed but new Friedmans seem to not hold up even as well as new Marshalls or Bogners or Soldanos. Maybe the Jose will be different

Can’t argue there. His gear does seem to not hold its value like others. I have a theory on that but I’ll just keep it to myself.

 

[Tanax]

I really do not like the pay now, get later motto. Consumers have allowed it to be much more prevalent over the last decade or so.

Me neither. It's not prevalent in Sweden AFAIK. On the other hand, the things I buy usually don't have that long of a delivery time. I also usually use Klarna's "get first, pay 30 days later" which is free to use in Sweden.

But yeah, I don't know. It's always been like this with Thomann as far as I remember though.

 

[GuitarJon]

I tried the amp with 6 other players, so this will hopefully give a good idea of what the amp is capable of:

 

[DrewJD82]

A few of my online gear buddies have gotten their hands on these and the more they post clips the more I'm falling in love with it.

 

[ejecta]

I tried the amp with 6 other players, so this will hopefully give a good idea of what the amp is capable of:

Links down below.

 

[GuitarBilly74]

On paper, I should be in love with this thing, but this - like all other clips I've heard thus far - sounds a little generic to me.

Well yeah, this is not Dave's take on the Jose mods, they ARE the Jose mod exactly how he originally designed them. The only thing Dave updated was the build method, but the circuit is the exact same.

This is not meant to be a "new amp". The other Friedmans are variations on this circuit with Dave's own tweaks and mods. But this is just a reissue of an old and very popular circuit.

It sounds generic because it's what everyone used.

Yeah, It basically sounds like every hard rock recording from the 80's for some reason.

Exactly. And the reason is, it's the exact circuit used on nearly every 80s hard rock record.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Exactly. And the reason is, it's the exact circuit used on nearly every 80s hard rock record.

Wasn’t there loads of variations of Jose mods though, rather than a single one? Even the Friedman Jose amp is laid out a bit more purposefully than what a Jose modded Marshall would be like. Either way, Dave has probably had his hands inside more Jose modded amps than anyone on the planet so I think I’d trust his take on it. I always thought the Friedman Jose is Dave choosing his favourite Jose modded amp circuit and giving a few options within that (like moving the MV pre and post tone stack).

I think “nearly every 80’s hard rock record” is a bit of a stretch too.

 

[Blix]

Wasn’t there loads of variations of Jose mods though, rather than a single one? Even the Friedman Jose amp is laid out a bit more purposefully than what a Jose modded Marshall would be like. Either way, Dave has probably had his hands inside more Jose modded amps than anyone on the planet so I think I’d trust his take on it. I always thought the Friedman Jose is Dave choosing his favourite Jose modded amp circuit and giving a few options within that (like moving the MV pre and post tone stack).

I think “nearly every 80’s hard rock record” is a bit of a stretch too.

The amp has all the variations of Jose mods, switchable. The "moveable" MV is one of them. :)

And yeah, it's definitely the other way around, most 80's records were not recorded with one.

 

[GuitarBilly74]

Wasn’t there loads of variations of Jose mods though, rather than a single one? Even the Friedman Jose amp is laid out a bit more purposefully than what a Jose modded Marshall would be like. Either way, Dave has probably had his hands inside more Jose modded amps than anyone on the planet so I think I’d trust his take on it. I always thought the Friedman Jose is Dave choosing his favourite Jose modded amp circuit and giving a few options within that (like moving the MV pre and post tone stack).

I think “nearly every 80’s hard rock record” is a bit of a stretch too.

There were several variations and theyare on this amp, accesible with the switches.

Obviously "every 80s hard rock record" is figure of speech, but certainly most of the biggest records of that era had a Jose modded on them. Crue, Dokken, Ratt, Whitesnake etc
LeeJackson mods were popular too and that's a different sound.

 

[mikah912]

There were several variations and theyare on this amp, accesible with the switches.

Obviously "every 80s hard rock record" is figure of speech, but certainly most of the biggest records of that era had a Jose modded on them. Crue, Dokken, Ratt, Whitesnake etc
LeeJackson mods were popular too and that's a different sound.

Even with that list, I associate Ratt's heyday sound with the Caswell/Levi mods rather than Jose mods. Certainly for Warren DeMartini. Same with the #39 amp, which was a Caswell mod using the tremolo circuit to hot-rod the amp.

Similarly, the peak Whitesnake sound most people covet is John Sykes' Mesa Coliseum tone. And just as ubiquitous is preset 45 on the ADA MP1 that Michael Wagener used on so many records.

Taking nothing from Jose, but I think "the biggest hard rock sounds of the 80s" come from a wider palette than just Jose-modded Marshalls, as fantastic as they sound. Thankfully, I've heard MUCH better demos of this amp recently.

 

[Humbug]

Exactly. And the reason is, it's the exact circuit used on nearly every 80s hard rock record.

Yeah, that was my point.

 

[GuitarBilly74]

Even with that list, I associate Ratt's heyday sound with the Caswell/Levi mods rather than Jose mods. Certainly for Warren DeMartini. Same with the #39 amp, which was a Caswell mod using the tremolo circuit to hot-rod the amp.

Similarly, the peak Whitesnake sound most people covet is John Sykes' Mesa Coliseum tone. And just as ubiquitous is preset 45 on the ADA MP1 that Michael Wagener used on so many records.

Taking nothing from Jose, but I think "the biggest hard rock sounds of the 80s" come from a wider palette than just Jose modded Marshalls, as fantastic as they sound. Thankfully, I've heard MUCH better demos of this amp recently.

Well Sykes on 1987 were the Mesa AND the Jose Marshall. Blue Murder was Mesa only and it's a very different tone.

But that's not really the point I was trying to make.... who used what.... the point was, this is not a new design. It's an exact reproduction of a 40+ y.o, design that was widely used and copied, so if it sounds generic/familiar.. that is why. It's not even meant to be anything new.

Friedman has a bunch of other variations of that circuit with different/newer takes on it. This amp (and the Plex) are not that.

 

[DrewJD82]

I think the thing with Jose Marshalls in the 80’s is that while modded Marshalls were a thing throughout that era, Jose’s often got tied to a specific guitarist’s tone, rather than just an album and he was essentially metal’s Howard Dumble. Everyone thought Ed’s infamous Marshall was a Jose Marshall due to Ed straight up telling people that (and people still believe it despite guys like John Suhr or Friedman stating it’s not). But Mick Mars/Dr. Feelgood and Vai/Eat Em And Smile were fucking huge albums in comparison to many other albums that featured modded Marshalls. After that it’d probably be No Rest For The Wicked with the Lee Jackson stuff, but I think Zakk was using actual Lee Jackson gear and not just Jackson-modded stuff by that point.

The big outlier here being the Appeitite amp as there were several dudes clamoring to own that head back then, which I think was the Caswell #34?

 

[Humbug]

The big outlier here being the Appeitite amp as there were several dudes clamoring to own that head back then, which I think was the Caswell #34?

The S.I.R. #34 was used on the Illusion records. Which amp was really used on AFD remains a bit of a mystery, but it was definitely rented from S.I.R. and almost certainly modded by either Caswell or Levi. Probably #36.

Santiago, the guy behind the AFD amp, is on this forum. Maybe he can shed some light?

 

[DrewJD82]

The S.I.R. #34 was used on the Illusion records. Which amp was really used on AFD remains a bit of a mystery, but it was definitely rented from S.I.R. and almost certainly modded by either Caswell or Levi. Probably #36.

Santiago, the guy behind the AFD amp, is on this forum. Maybe he can shed some light?

Which one is the one Lynch tried to steal from DiMartini’s apartment?

 

[cragginshred]

Why are there so many Bad audio/videos being released??
The last 2 are really bad. If I was Dave I would pay them to take em down. Any amp can be made to sound bad or not at it's best but sheesh

This one sounds great



and of course X brings the VH!!

 

[DrewJD82]

Why are there so many Bad audio/videos being released??
The last 2 are really bad. If I was Dave I would pay them to take em down. Any amp can be made to sound bad or not at it's best but sheesh, these are bad

This one sounds great



and of course X brings the VH!!

I’ll never understand the ‘iPhone demo of how someone’s room sounds’ aspect of iPhone gear demos. But this isn’t a high gain amp and Jon’s a high gain player (though I don’t think his vid sounded bad at all, he’s just not a Plexi dude. Gilmour wouldn’t sound badass on a boosted 5150 just the same) Dave said he had zero interest in sending this out to the usual geartubers and if he did, it’d be going to guys who know how to milk everything they can out of a Plexi.

Plexi’s are the ultimate proof of tone being in the hands, no additional gain stages are going to change that. They can’t be played like a 5150 or Dual Rec and to really grasp what they have to offer some experience with Plexi’s is a bit of a requirement and I’d imagine having an idea of the lineage of this amp would go a long way as well. I’m sure a few people are going to get one thinking it’s the ultimate Marshall, but that’s not this amp.