“José died and no-one knows where it went”: Legendary amp builder José Arredondo built Eddie Van Halen a mystery amp that might be lost forever

Tube amp guru Dave Friedman has revealed that legendary modder José Arredondo built a custom amp for Eddie Van Halen that has disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Speaking to the Final Resonance TV YouTube channel, Friedman says he once ran into Arredondo at a NAMM show, who proceeded to show him a guitar amp that was built for Eddie, potentially some kind of signature model. But following Arredondo’s death in 1994, no-one knows where it is.

“I didn’t see Ed at that point, but they were trying to shop their amp that José had made,” says Friedman. “The amp that no-one knows whatever happened to. I saw it. I saw it at a shop. No-one knows whatever happened to this amp. It’s a mystery where it went. Ed didn’t know what happened to it. No-one knew what happened to it. José died and no-one knows where it went.”

Cataloging the electric guitar gear behind the Van Halen sound has been an archival project readily taken on by legions of EVH fans online. It is not always easy. Eddie would share some secrets, but he would also actively participate in the mythology. He would experiment and try new things.

We can hunt the Brown Sound, but which Brown Sound? The common denominator that links modded Marshall amps, variac transformers, orange-box phaser pedals and the rest of it is Eddie’s playing. Friedman, who has built rigs for Eddie, says as much in the interview.

But that doesn’t invalidate the search for ‘Holy Grail’ missing pieces, as this Arredondo-designed amp would definitely be. Sadly, even Friedman didn’t even get to hear it. He did get a look at it, though.

“I remember seeing it,” he says. “It had two channels, and it had one channel that was covered – it was huge. The amp was like the size of an SVT. José showed it to me. He didn’t play through it – he just showed me. ‘Yeah, that’s the amp we’re working on with Ed.’ And Ed sunk a bunch of money into it, and no-one, no-one knew what happened to it.”

In many respects, this amp shares a similar reputation to Arredondo, whose biography remains shrouded in mystery. His work, however, and his reputation, have become the stuff of legend.

In 2010, Guitar World ran a feature on the legendary amp wizards, among whom was Arredondo. One of his clients, Bryan Jay, of Keel, had a Marshall modded by Arredondo, and recalled how hard it was to find him at the time.

“You had to know somebody that knew somebody that knew him to get a hold of him,” he said. “Thinking back, [my mod] was kind of difficult to get.”

Arredondo was suitably discrete about his clients. Jay says he didn’t give up his secrets easily, and wouldn’t comment on who else’s Marshall was sitting in the garage awaiting transformation. But he sure did a heck of a job, adding an extra preamp tube and a pull function that bottomed out the volume while keeping the gain.

“What I basically wanted was that kind of that first Van Halen album sound, and he seemed to know exactly what I wanted,” said Jay. “We’d put up different amps in our rehearsal studio, play through this one, switch to that one, and the Jose always blew everything away. It was unbelievable how good it sounded. When you pulled the knob out, it dropped the volume, but you still had all this gain. It sounded like it was on 10.”

Jay claims that Peavey based the design of its VTM series on his Arredondo-modded Marshall. If Arredondo’s client list was hush-hush and on the Q.T., we do know that players such as John Sykes, George Lynch and Steve Vai were on it. Jay says Yngwie Malmsteen was a client, too.

James Hetfield was another client. He has Arredondo to thank for why his rhythm guitar tone sounds so good on Metallica’s latest album, 72 Seasons. Speaking to Total Guitar, producer Greg Fidelman said that Hetfield used the legendary amp on almost every track.

“James has always had one of the legendary José Arredondo-modded Marshalls, a late-’60s/early-’70s Superlead head,” said Fidelman. “When we did Hardwired... [To Self Destruct in 2016] it wasn’t working very well. When we started this album, I had a re-invigorated interest in this head.

“I was talking with Dave Friedman, who is very familiar with those old José mods, and he fixed it. When I got it back, I told James I thought it sounded insane, and he got really excited about it. It ended up on every song. I think that’s what you’re hearing.”

Which brings us nicely back to Dave Friedman, and our mystery amp. Where is it? He has no idea. It might be gone for good.

“It’s a mystery where it went. It would be amazing if it turned up one day,” says Friedman. “But I don’t think it’s going to turn up. I think it was probably trashed at some point in time – when, I don’t know. Maybe his family has it. I have no idea. It’s a mystery. You’d think it would come up already by now.”