Hot Rod your Marshall 1959HW - OG José HOW TO!!

A 2023 1959HW has come in for an old school José mod. Here I show you how I do it, stay tuned for the tones at the end.

Signal chain;
Kramer USA 1984 with JB
Modded 1959HW
Marshall 4 x12 with Greenbacks,
SM57 to UA Apollo and Logic Pro

0:00 Play in - completed amp
0:14 Stock amp intro
2:23 Out of the head shell
4:03 Stock amp at the bench
5:45 Mod review at the bench
14:07 Play out - completed amp

[swagbort]

That's my schematic that I drew 35 years ago before the internet. It's kind of sloppy, I got better at it I think, this was my first one. The circuit is from a 1982 anniversary series Jose 2203 that I bought in 1986 along with the original receipt from Arrco. I wish I still had that amp, but it served its purpose. I did many Jose mods over the years, and I still play my favorite '73 50watt with one of my original mods. I posted this schematic on my website for fun sometime around 2009, and it went mega viral. I wonder how many Jose mods have been done from this one schematic...

[robbrooks]

This amp sounds fantastic. Great video, I'm a new subscriber. I have a funny Jose story. Apologies for the wall of text.

In summer of 1993, I was sitting at my Doc's office in Sherman Oaks. In walks this old man. He starts chatting with me, mentions that he works with a lot of musicians. Motley Crue, Metallica, Edward, etc. I think....yeah, yeah, right. Stop name dropping old man, you don't work for anyone. I leave the docs office and get to work and then reality hits me like a ton of bricks...I was just talking to Jose Arredondo. It never occurred to my stupid, barely adult ass that I was speaking to the legend. He had seen the long hair and knew I would know him. I opened the phone book because I knew the name of his yellow electronic shop, which was like 500 yards down the road from the docs office. He picked up the phone and I apologized profusely, to which he laughed about. We spoke about a lot of amp topics for about an hour. He mentioned that he wouldn't mod a Marshall after a certain year (seems like '74) because of a switch they made with either output or main trans. He called them junk. He talked about John Sykes and mentioned the Whitesnake record, which was attributed to Sykes using a Boogie Mark III Coliseum. He was adamant that Sykes used his amp on that record. He told me that Ed's amp was stock. He didn't do anything to it except replace the fat cap and cleaned it up. Variac was used to drop the voltage and brown it up. He offered to build me an amp and I told I would call when I had the funds. The next year, I found out that he died. I'm forever grateful that I got to have at least one conversation with the genius.

[kowpow]

You can talk freely about those transformers mate! We want to hear your thoughts. That's why we're here!

[vicguitar]

This is Gold ! Because of you I have built my first Marshall 20 watt Clone ! Thanks Jason .Vic from Vancouver .

[curtisprice]

Thank you for all of your videos covering Marshall amplifiers...after all, NEARLY EVERY ROCK album I love from A-Z used Marshall amps!!! That is A LOT OF LEGENDARY BANDS!!! RESPECT!!! 👍🤯

[victorbeebe]

Aloha Jason thanks for the mod. I prefer the way you set it up.

[PhuketMyMac]

There's hardly anyone better than you to do videos explaining how those circuits work. You're helping preserve the knowledge that could have disappeared completely from planet earth at the pace electronic replacement stuff is taking over. So thank you once again for that.

[jobwait]

I am sold on your expertise, Jason! I love the mods you do on Marshalls. I'll be looking for a used Alta v2 someday. It will be much more affordable than new.

[kirkgreenman]

That Jose mod, sounds so good. I installed in an amp I made a while back. Very clean sounding and not fuzzy. The notes are clear and have a good clean harmonic. Thank you for sharing.

[lousekoya]

Guys ! Hit the like for Jason , he makes killer videos !

[siriusamplification]

It looks so weird not seeing DPDT pot at the treble for a Jose mod 😆 I'm very glad Marshall decided to relabel the transformer codes to remove the old Dagnall codes and used MAV... great video 🤘

[lechstryzewski]

Awesome stuff man .... as it usually is !! - I have been contemplating adding a tube Gain stage to my '75 1959 for some time now, .... just didn't know exactly how to approach it. You have helped demystify the process for me - much appreciaited !! - Great content man .... Thanks for sharing Jason !!

[notasilicaanimus]

Sounds fantastic, but no surprises there. Great work as usual.

[murrayguitarpickups]

G'day Jase, I picked up an amp from Alex last week, and although Alex had packed it with 4kg of bubble wrap and double boxed with tons of fragile tape, Australia post must have throen it in the back of the van and let it roll around because the bright switch and gain pot was mangled when it arrived. Alex sent me a new one prewired and i had to open it up and swap out the parts. It was pretty simple but very intimidating because its the first time I've worked on an amp. I'm incredibly impressed by it

[JimmyDevere]

Would love to see a video how to do the diode clipping and pre PI (preEQ/postEQ) master volume as is done on Steve Vai's amp as reviewed by Pete Thorn.

[Ontariosound]

Enjoyed your channel for a few years. Just subscribed ✅

[DanielC__]

Your channel and analysis is why I went to a private builder when looking for a new Plexi. I chose Germino Amps and his Lead55 which is a late 1960's Marshall clone with top notch components. From order to delivery was 14 weeks but it was well worth it. It's absolutely silent and the sound quality is pure Marshall Plexi tone monster. To hell with Marshall and the crap they're putting in the amps these days. They've raced to the bottom and I had no intention of following them after being utterly snd thoroughly disappointed in my JCM800. Now I've got a great Marshall amp made by someone else and an expensive Marshall made door stop.

[kxmrock]

Beautiful, this is how you do it. Bought and direct to Tech, i wish Jason lived in California

Having that extra hole for the preamp tube already in the chassis is nice. Guess that a throwback to the old Tremolo heads. Would love to do this to a 1987, but they don’t have that extra knockout in the chassis.

[angusorvid]

I tried a lot of Jose style modded plexis in the 80s when I was playing in the Sunset Strip scene. This amp sounds better than 99% of the best of them. It's a God mod.