Full Tour of a Jose Arrendondo modified 100 watt Marshall..Amp Nerds only

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harddriver
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Re: Full Tour of a Jose Arrendondo modified 100 watt Marshall..Amp Nerds only

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I built a high gainer in 2009 that had two channels I had split the input jacks and could switch between them with an A/B Y pedal. One jack was the extra 12ax7 4the gain stage and the other jack was a slightly gained up 2203 3 gain stage.

Originally the amp started with true Jose master with siwtchable 20V/20V diodes but eventually the owner( My brother) preferred the standrd JCM800 PrePI master. That amp had everything feature wise, adjustable NFB(which you could make it loose and very plexi or tight like a Splawn), Depth mod, footswitchable gain boost. I can't remember if I did switchable bright caps on the gain pots or not I don't think I did. The amp was a hodge podge of ideas, Cameron, Splawn, SLO. That amp moved alot of air I originally used .1uf coupling caps in the PI with 82K bias splitter resistors because I used 6550 tubes for the punch and longevity of them, he loved the shitton of bass in the first iteration of the amp but could be a bit woffy with the dpeth mod, he was chunk junky...he was into Sevendust and such at the time :lol: but he and I wanted the amp tighter so I experimented and ended up with .047uf coupling caps in the PI with the 82K bias splitters it tightened the amp up nicely but it still hi hard in the lows.

I ended up doing elevated DC heaters into the center tap of the heater wire of the power transformer which floats the AC heaters with DC like Cameron did on his modded Marshalls. It was sorto of an my take on a Cameron Ocean/Aldrich but my brother wanted the capability to also us it as a straight up 2203. Dave Friedman helped me figure out out to divorce the input jacks in such a way that you could toggle inputs with an AB pedal and not use a relay. It worked pretty good made a little clunk but it worked.

Here are some clips my brother made of it, his playing is mediocre but you can hear the tone of the amp.


We are running the 50 watter and 100 watter in stereo in this video, the 50 watter was a Mod5 in the video but was changed later to a Cameron Jose with a standard JCM800 master volume with a 3 way cathode selector 2.7K/.68uf(Evox/Rifa) 2.7K/68(Mustard cap) and 10K cold clipper on V1A and I think a depth mod it was an angry little amp I wish I had gotten more clips of it after the final mods. He was running chorus in the clip, he liked that Zakk Wylde type of tone. Guitar is a lat 90's MIK Epiphone Les Paul custom with a Suhr Alrdich pickup, speaker were Celestion 12H30s anniversyaries and WGS ETS65's and one cabinet had Celestion Greenbacks.
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Re: Full Tour of a Jose Arrendondo modified 100 watt Marshall..Amp Nerds only

Post by PLX »

Awesome sounding amps :!:
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Re: Full Tour of a Jose Arrendondo modified 100 watt Marshall..Amp Nerds only

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PLX wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 12:01 pm Awesome sounding amps :!:
Thanks PLX that means alot coming from your well seasoned ears! 8-)

That last iteration of that amp was he kept pushing me to make it sound like his Cameron Ocean amp somewhat but my amp was super Marshally I didn't want to turn it into a Mesa Boogie if you know what i mean. I ended up installing Evox/Rifa polycarbonate .68uf on the cathodes. You will see these capacitors being used in Cameron Aldriches and Joses, it seemed the extra good sounding ones had these capacitors for some reason, they have this clarity to them. If you go to his YT channel he does an A/B comparison of the Cameron and my amp. The Cameron still has a bit more clarity and definition.
Last edited by harddriver on Tue May 31, 2022 3:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Full Tour of a Jose Arrendondo modified 100 watt Marshall..Amp Nerds only

Post by PLX »

harddriver wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 3:22 pm.. I ended up installing Evox/Rifa polycarbonate .68uf on the cathodes. You will see this capacitors being used in Cameron Aldriches and Jose, it seemed the extra good sounding ones had these capacitors for some reason, they have this clarity to them ..
I learned about those from looking at the Mark Abrahamaniac MOD5 amps.

Started using them in my builds as well.

They do sound different.
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Re: Full Tour of a Jose Arrendondo modified 100 watt Marshall..Amp Nerds only

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PLX wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 3:32 pm
harddriver wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 3:22 pm.. I ended up installing Evox/Rifa polycarbonate .68uf on the cathodes. You will see this capacitors being used in Cameron Aldriches and Jose, it seemed the extra good sounding ones had these capacitors for some reason, they have this clarity to them ..
I learned about those from looking at the Mark Abrahamaniac MOD5 amps.

Started using them in my builds as well.

They do sound different.
Mark was using the yellow box caps I can't remember who made them, Dave Friedman used the for a short while as well and as far as I know they are polyester caps much like the WIMA caps but the WIMA MK caps might be polypropylene like the Illinois MPW cap which are killer as well.

The polycarbonate EVO/RIFA CMK caps are a different animal they are almost a creme color not bright yellow. I tracked down quite a few of them. I am waiting to install them in my 1983 JCM800 Psychodave Jose build that is sitting on my bench just looking at me.... :roll: :lol:

I you want I'll send you a few to try out, just PM me.
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Re: Full Tour of a Jose Arrendondo modified 100 watt Marshall..Amp Nerds only

Post by PLX »

harddriver wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 3:48 pm Mark was using the yellow box caps I can't remember who made them, Dave Friedman used the for a short while as well and as far as I know they are polyester caps much like the WIMA caps but the WIMA MK caps might be polypropylene like the Illinois MPW cap which are killer as well.

The polycarbonate EVO/RIFA CMK caps are a different animal they are almost a creme color not bright yellow. I tracked down quite a few of them. I am waiting to install them in my 1983 JCM800 Psychodave Jose build that is sitting on my bench just looking at me.... :roll: :lol:

I you want I'll send you a few to try out, just PM me.
Yeah, I saw them first in the MOD5 amps, and then when I saw the guts of a Freidman he had the red ones (WIMA ?) in there.

All the effects pedals I built last year used those WIMA caps as well.

When I googled the EVO/RIFA CMK caps, I instantly thought it was the same ones Mark used in the MOD5 ? Maybe not. :?


AionFX sells the circuit board for the Shaffer-Vega pre-amp pedal for $12: https://aionfx.com/project/gale-booster-limiter/
I forget what the rest of the parts cost for the build, but it wasn't much.
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Re: Full Tour of a Jose Arrendondo modified 100 watt Marshall..Amp Nerds only

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PLX wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 3:57 pm

When I googled the EVO/RIFA CMK caps, I instantly thought it was the same ones Mark used in the MOD5 ? Maybe not. :?


AionFX sells the circuit board for the Shaffer-Vega pre-amp pedal for $12: https://aionfx.com/project/gale-booster-limiter/
I forget what the rest of the parts cost for the build, but it wasn't much.
I'd probably just sell a couple things and pick one up built from Solo Dallas. Just not sure if I want the classic or the storm, they say they are essentially the same...I dunno... :?

I tell you what I exclusively used Illinois MPW caps throughout the high gain build and they are fantastic capaciitors at least circa 2009 when I built it. The generic polyester caps are great as well and appear in many Cameron amps as well as orange drop polypropylene especially the Aldriches.

I made an entire thread on Metro when I did the high gain build with pictures. I lost my photobucket account password I had alot of pics of that amp.
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Re: Full Tour of a Jose Arrendondo modified 100 watt Marshall..Amp Nerds only

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harddriver wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 4:05 pm I'd probably just sell a couple things and pick one up built from Solo Dallas. Just not sure if I want the classic or the storm, they say they are essentially the same...I dunno... :?
Looks like the "Storm" pedal goes for around $200 on Reverb.com

The one I linked on AionFX is a clone of the SoloDallas Storm (version 2, 2019).

It's a clean boost. The "Threshold" knob is the unique thing about this effect. It controls the Compressor/Expander optical circuit.

I'd say I prolly built my clone pedal for around $100 (PCB, parts, & shipping)
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Re: Full Tour of a Jose Arrendondo modified 100 watt Marshall..Amp Nerds only

Post by harddriver »

I just remembered who made those yellow box cap that Rockstah and Friedman was using. Xicon made them. I bought a few back in the day same as you and found them kinda bland sounding, not horrible more or less kind of in the Mallory 150 cap category which are good caps as well.
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Re: Full Tour of a Jose Arrendondo modified 100 watt Marshall..Amp Nerds only

Post by PLX »

harddriver wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 7:45 pm I just remembered who made those yellow box cap that Rockstah and Friedman was using. Xicon made them. I bought a few back in the day same as you and found them kinda bland sounding, not horrible more or less kind of in the Mallory 150 cap category which are good caps as well.
Yeah, that sounds right.

I have some hi-res pictures of gutshots of some of Mark's modded amps.

I'll look at them later and see if I can make that out - but I think you're right about that.
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