NAMM 2025: Friedman ‘Jose’ pays tribute to amp modification legend who worked with Steve Vai, Metallica, EVH & More

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 amp head. This was first announced at NAMM 2025, and we had the pleasure of speaking to Dave, as well as Arredondo’s daughter Marisol, about the upcoming project and how people can get hold of this special piece of amp history via Andertons Music Co.

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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.”

Rock music wouldn’t have sounded how it sounded if Jose hadn’t modded these guitar amplifiers.

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 100W Marshall-style head with bass and treble channels
• 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

More info to come!

About Friedman amps

As mentioned above, Dave Friedman has established himself and his namesake company as true valve amp aficionados, channelling their passion for brit-style crunch and modded tube amps into a world-renowned line-up of mid-to-high-gain amps. From the Dirty Shirley to the modern classic BE-100, Friedman amps are used by everyone from Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher to Jerry Cantrell to Dave Grohl. Shop our full Friedman amps range right here!