Friedman Builds the JOSE 20 Around Jose Arredondo's Mod Legacy
Dave Friedman worked with Marisol Arredondo, daughter of the late amp modder, on a 20-watt EL84 head and 1x12 combo voiced for that hot-rodded Marshall bark.
Aug 27, 2026
Credit: Friedman Amplification (via source)
Dave Friedman has spent years chasing the sound of Jose Arredondo's modified Marshalls, the amps that shaped tones for Eddie Van Halen and George Lynch. For the JOSE 20 he brought in Marisol Arredondo, Jose's daughter, to help sign off on the voicing. The result is a 20-watt, all-tube design running a pair of EL84s and four 12AX7s, sold as an $1,799.99 head or a $2,099.99 1x12 combo loaded with a Celestion G12M-65 Creamback.
The control set leans on the hot-rodded-plexi idea. Volume I and II are bridged internally, a Plexi/Gain switch adds a gain stage, and a three-position Gain Style switch plus a Fat switch change how aggressive and thick the amp gets. There is a system master volume and a transparent series effects loop, and Friedman is building the amps by hand in Los Angeles with custom transformers.
At 20 watts the JOSE 20 is aimed at players who want that saturated, mid-forward voice at a volume that works on smaller stages and in the studio, rather than the 100-watt heads the original mods were built into.
Why it matters
Jose Arredondo's mod work is a piece of hard-rock amp history that mostly lives in stories and a handful of surviving heads. A production amp built with his family's input, at lower wattage, puts that voice within reach of players who will never find an original.
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