When players or builders say "the Jose mod" without qualification, they usually mean the pre-tone-stack master volume + Zener diode clipper at the wiper combination. This is the highest-gain, most-compressed Jose voicing — what EVH #12301 has been associated with for forty years, what George Lynch ran in Dokken, what John Sykes used in Whitesnake and Blue Murder.
JMIL splits this into two toggleable mods because they were *not always paired* on real Jose amps:
- `jose-master-volume` — the 1MΩ push-pull pot placed BEFORE the tone stack, immediately after the cathode follower. The defining structural mod (see jose-mv-history). Always present in any Jose-MV build.
- `diode-clipping` — a pair of Zener diodes (back-to-back, typical 20V per the Friedman recall) shunting the MV wiper to ground via ~10kΩ. Required: jose-master-volume (the diodes need the MV wiper to clamp). Optional layer added by Jose for the bedroom-volume Brown Sound voicing.
Why the split matters: per Friedman's authority sample (~100 amps documented across his career), diodes were present on roughly 1 in 6 Jose amps (see diode-prevalence). Mick Mars's Dr. Feelgood amp, Warren DeMartini's main rig, and James Hetfield's "Jose-Metallica" tone are all documented no-diode Joses. Reducing "the Jose mod" to "MV + diodes" loses the equally-canonical no-diode variants.
The combined recipe in practice: 1. Run the cascade-v1-v2 mod (V2a cold-clipper with unbypassed cathode). 2. Add jose-master-volume (the 1MΩ pre-tone-stack pot, linear taper when diodes are present). 3. Add diode-clipping (20V Zener pair across the MV wiper via 10kΩ). 4. (Optional) Layer NFB-mod for the looser power-amp feel.
That four-mod stack approximates the most-cited "Jose Marshall" voicing in the canon. To toggle this directly in JMIL, the "Bedroom Tight" preset on the recipe bar applies the diode-included variant; the "Mars Dr. Feelgood" preset applies the no-diode variant. Both are equally "Jose" per the historical record — what changes is whether the player wanted the diode shelf.
Wiring caveat (per Panel #11): the push-pull on the MV pot is sometimes thought to engage/disengage the diodes. It does not. When diodes are wired into a Jose amp, they sit permanently across the MV wiper. The push-pull selects between two MV signal paths only — both with diodes engaged.