1967' Jose' Arrendondo modded 1959 plexi on the Bay.

[charveldan]

1967 Marshall Jose Arredondo modded 100 watt Plexi tube guitar amp EVH Van Halen | eBay


I would love to hear dis......

 

[90LBWrench]

Me too!

 

[vintagevoltage351]

Same here!

 

[fstrat59slp]

Me threee!!

 

[Username2]

You can have a brand new handwired 67 Superbass built with all kinds of killer mods for $3k. No sense in paying for the bragging rights of having a Jose mod'ed amp, any good amp tech can do his mods and there are much better mods out there now anyways for these amps.

No way would I pay that.

 

[rbehm]

No Thank-you Please. It saddens me to see a valuable piece of history BUTCHERED....

 

[Blokkadeleider]

What happened to that amp? Butchered is the right word.
What a shamefull sight. (It probably sounds allright but even then)


Gr,

Gerrit.

 

[jwebb1970]

For several years, I played thru a MkII Master Lead 50w head that had been heavily modified - not by Arredondo, but the work on my amp was done by a SoCal shop sometime in the 1980s & looked a lot like the pics of the linked Ebay item.

I paid $400 for that head used. Doubt this one is approx $7000 "better".

 

[demonufo]

If anything, those mods have devalued what could've been a nice vintage amp.
Don't care WHO did them. Most of Jose's work is nothing special, and most of it is in the public domain these days.

 

[jwebb1970]

If anything, those mods have devalued what could've been a nice vintage amp.
Don't care WHO did them. Most of Jose's work is nothing special, and most of it is in the public domain these days.

At the time (late 70s/early to mid 80s), an Arredondo mod was "special", if not overly costly. But it is true that today, modern amps often produce "modded" tones out of the box...and basically all the techie secrets that made a Jose-mod "special" can be found on the interwebs easily these days.

 

[MartyStrat54]

...ah Eddie didn't play a modded amp.

 

[MartyStrat54]

Fyi

there are many misconceptions about edward van halen’s primary amplifier used for recording. Rumors have abounded about the amplifier being heavily modified and some of these rumors were in fact generated by mr. Van halen himself (he admitted telling these stories to help generate business for tech friend jose arrendo’s shop). However, in truth according to our best knowledge, his amplifier of choice for recording, a mid-60’s 100 watt marshall super lead, was primarily stock.

<snip> later, eddie admitted that the amp was stock and jose had just done basic maintenance's. A Dutch amp tech who restored eddie's legendary marshall also said it was stock.

 

[demonufo]

Exactly. MANY creditable sources can confirm that Eddie's amp was pretty much a stock '68 split cathode superlead.

Albeit one that had had about 300 replacement output transformers through the years.

 

[Ydna]

Yea. There's an interview of him from 1978 saying he would put 6CA7s in it and crank the bias pot all the way up.

That I remember %100 from reading it.

I also want to say I remember him saying he used a variac to not lower, but boost the voltage. But that could be my crazy imagination.

 

[demonufo]

Eddie used to take the p!ss an awful lot in interviews.

I believe he did use genuine 6CA7's though. I'm still looking for another set at a sensible price (not gonna happen).

Awww sh!t, everybody's gonna think I'm another Eddie tone chaser now. Couldn't be further from the truth.

 

[Blokkadeleider]

I had sylvania 6A7's in my Kitty Hawk Supreme I. Great sounding tubes.
They were already difficult to get back then. (1988)


Gr,

Gerrit.

 

[indeedido]

There doesn't seem to be any proof this was actually modded by Jose. A place where a sticker used to be? That's the proof? No documentation or receipt? Plus it looks like it has been butchered pretty good.

 

[MartyStrat54]

About a year ago, I bought quite a few sets of Sylvania "Fat Boy" 6CA7's. They were all for my private use. I got a pair of Triple Getter (two top, one side) Sylvania's that were the best they ever made. I tried them out in my 2204 and they sound awesome. I pulled them to keep and put a set of Dual Getter SYL's in the amp. The good one's go for about $80 per tube and you want/need a matched set which makes it even more difficult to obtain.

When it comes to buying power tubes, so many sellers "lie" about the matching. That's why I had to get out of selling power tubes. It got too hard to find good matched NOS tubes.

 

[sweaty v]

Fugly, so sad.. Doesnt matter what's in it, butchered.

 

[Diezeldale]

No Thank-you Please. It saddens me to see a valuable piece of history BUTCHERED....

By today's standard that is a rare vintage Plexi, but back in the day when Jose had it, they were probably in Pawn shops fairly cheap?