Yes way, Jose... Bucket list grail amp incoming

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RedPlated

RedPlated

Well-known member
Well, I've been searching for one for years and now it's happened. An all-original Jose Arredondo 1971 Super lead is coming home. Can't tell you guys how excited I am to have been lucky enough to grab one.

My good buddy found two Arredondo 71' Super leads locally in Los Angeles. Makes sense to find them here as Jose's shop was located in the same county. The seller's dad had both of these Marshalls modded by Jose, presumably in the 80's, I don't know the exact year, and ran them live in stereo. Both are 3-in-1 mods. The unique feature of these ones, that I haven't seen before, is that Jose put the push pull control for the extra gain stage on the rear of the amp, keeping the front stock in appearance. The stock presence control location is now the master volume and presence is on back. It has the 6 way "preamp selector" which adjusts the extra stage plate resistor values. They are all original as Jose modded them and still have all the old-school labels for the extra controls and effects loop on back.

My buddy got one amp and I was able to convince the seller to let me purchase the second one. The seller's dad had put these amps in storage years ago and he just recently pulled them out. So they both needed full maintenance and servicing. Rather than do it myself, Dave Friedman serviced both amps. I feel he should be the one to do the work, as he knows these amps better than anyone and it just increases the provenance. He actually just finished mine up today. Hoping to pick it up tonight. He said mine has a Plexi OT in it, as sometimes happened, due to Marshall using leftover parts.

I'll post up some more photos and try to make a clip when I get the amp back. It's super exciting to get such a piece of amp history into the collection...

Mine is the amp on top. Luckily, I have a super clean early 70’s vintage super lead head shell laying around to put it in for now. But of course I’ll keep the original.


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Congrats mate, i was going to ask how do people know they're authentic but I guess having the original label would answer that one
 
Congrats mate, i was going to ask how do people know they're authentic but I guess having the original label would answer that one
Thank you...

Neither one has the "AARCO" label on back. But to be honest, I've seen a few more real ones in person and they didn't have them either. It's sort of hit and miss. Dave Friedman fully authenticated both of them and confirmed they are 100% original Jose Arredondos. He's been in a lot of them and knows them better than anyone.

I know a guy out here that has two Jose's. Tried buying one for the longest and it wasn't going anywhere. I also remember walking into Dave's shop around a year ago and seeing one of (does he have more?) Hetfield's Jose Marshalls out of the chassis for service. I almost grabbed it and ran and hid in another country haha. That was a literal jaw-dropping moment for me.
 
Oh man. That's so awesome. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on it. Congratulations on a dream come true amp. Mike
 
I’ll mention that Mark Cameron told me when he worked for the music store that got Jose’s old shop amps, that he finished like 15 amps and the shop sold them off a original Jose amps. They had all of the parts that Jose used. Mark always felt the one Mike Fortin had was one he finished.

Don’t shoot the messenger.
 
I’ll mention that Mark Cameron told me when he worked for the music store that got Jose’s old shop amps, that he finished like 15 amps and the shop sold them off a original Jose amps. They had all of the parts that Jose used. Mark always felt the one Mike Fortin had was one he finished.

Don’t shoot the messenger.
Those sneaky fargin bastages!!!!!
 
Wow talk about literal gold mines.

To have a real Jose modded amp is unreal. I’d likely have an insurance policy in place should it get lost/stolen. These are only going up in value over time.

I think yours was the one I saw a recent picture of on Dave Friedman’s Facebook page.
 
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