Jose is a red herring that some people chase.
Jose wasn't known as a tone magician before VH broke through and why would Ed go to him except that he was able to get to him and Jose was probably not too expensive.
It's also pretty obvious that Jose was telling different people different things, a pedal, 2 different amp setups, master volume etc etc.
Ed was buying and selling a fair few amps around that 75/76 period and taking some of them to Jose for servicing makes sense.
Ed did not have his Marshall or other Marshall's around 1973, and he's pictured playing a Bandmaster and Ed himself has said he used to use the Bandmaster and also at home for practicing because he could do the low volume trick with it at home.
So the Marshall's probably start around 1974 and Ed bought and sold a few and he had a European one for a while that gave him the idea of using something like a Variac.
The Variac dropping the voltage, drops the power and alters the balance of the amp as Mike Soldano says to around 35 watts with the amp dimed, with the Variac dropping the voltage down to 90 volts.
So, it's not a 100 watt amp anymore and one cabinet can easily be used with it and Ed says that he sometimes dropped the voltage down below 90, depending on things.
All of that has little to do with Jose, and the knob or switch at the back of the amp could have been anything and a similar thing was not installed in Ed's other amps so whatever it was, it couldn't have been that important as if it was that important, then it would be in all of Ed's amps
I can't see the need for it to be a master volume btw (Jose's master volume diode thing just smooths out the distortion and drops the volume) because of the variac enabling dropping the amps power but still enabling the amp to be dimed and a thing like the one wire mod is not really needed to get Ed's gain level which is more than a PAF through a dimed Plexi as Mike Soldano said, but the gain level is veering more towards a 2203 but a 2203 gain level and compression isn't it and the gain level is more like a 13k pickup used with the Variac/Plexi and still getting the Plexi circuit headroom but there is more to the headroom and sustain thing .
Ed's Echoplex's are interesting because Ed bought them new when the Echoplex EP-3's were coming out with compressor circuits modelled on a MXR Dyna-Comp set to a medium type of compression.
Ed had the echo on a lot for the slight slapback echo, making the guitar sound bigger and wider and more 3D.
Ed bought a fair few Mighty Mites and even had a clear bobbin Mighty Mite in the Bee for a while, meaning that he bought a fair few Mighty Mites from Wayne Charvel and Ed has a Mighty Mite distortion in the Ibanez Destroyer in 1978 photos.
So the stock PAF stories are just that and Ed got hold of Seymour around late 1977/early 1978 to get some PAF's rewound with more wire (and therefore output) and Seymour was trying to sell the Custom (13k ceramic) as the EVH pickup until Ed stopped him.
The much later Seymour EVH pickup (9k A2) can basically be dismissed as it's way past Seymour's earlier EVH Custom pickup and I think the Seymour EVH pickup is just marketing and is so different to what Ed actually used that Seymour knows Ed would not come after him again.
So what it is so far, Plexi dropped down to 90 or less volts and being fed by a Echoplex with medium compression/sustain with snapback echo and a 13k pickup, and it's a pretty unique setup capable of gain/sustain but still combined with the Plex's headroom.
Also the phase for solos and flanger for a few things.
The 13k pickup was probably ceramic but at some point he did get to A2's.
Ed could have even got PAF's rewound to 16k with A2's (a JB like spec).
The way Ed was using his amps on the 1978 World Tour was in a 3 amps daisy chained together config (with a variac) and he had 3 sets (of 3 daisy chained amps) making a total of 9 (or more) amps.
This setup was for the bigger venues of the 1978 world tour and would have little in common with his club or recording setups.
Ed had an Eruption(Franky)/YRGM(Destroyer) live setup where he changed from one group of 3 daisy chained amps to another quickly because of needing to include the Univox in the Eruption signal chain and then quickly changing to a signal chain without the Univox for YRGM or sometimes something else.
So that's a lot of variables plus there are all of the VH1 recording variables with the Sunset Sound echo chamber and mic positions etc etc.
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The Warner Brothers demos (March/April 1977) were recorded just before Ed got onto tapping from seeing Harvey Mandel in mid 1977.
There is no tapping on the Warner Brothers demos and Ed's gear would have been very similar to the VH1 gear (VH1 probably recorded August/September 1977).
The production is just basic on the Warner Brothers demos and there is no huge Sunset Sound echo chamber reverb on it as it's just a Ted Templeman and Donn Landee demo.
So if someone wants a better idea of Ed's so called great sound without the gloss, then listen to the Warner Brothers demos that have minimal production.
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Ed used his own gear for the Gene Simmons demos as it was recorded in LA but the overdubs were done in New York and the overdubbed bits were done in New York maybe with borrowed amps.
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The amp that the techs saw can be ID'd by it's serial number and some of them have verified it was the serial of the so called main amp.
