no, he couldn't get past the bootloader to flash the zip. You have to be able to boot to use maderstock. He had to d/l full 2.2 sbf (2.3.15) and flash that, since his bootloader was still 30.01.
(He bricked trying to flash an old sbf 2.3.13) So, he was able to flash 2.3.15, then accepted the 2.3.420 ota update. He's cool now.
The old bootloader was why he had to do the .15 before the .320.