looks like a P-90 there Mike?

for his later stuff, it's a neck 'bucker with gain on the amp around halfway, i'd guess...for an approximation.

Tube Screamer for sure.

But there's a lot more to it than that as others have mentioned.

ORIGINAL: mike_mccue

Is it true that the early tone was a hot rodded Fender Princeton?

best,
mike

Hi, Mike,

I can't say for sure if it was a hot-rodded Princeton but I think it's a very good possibility that it was. The guys that started Mesa Boogie began by modding Fender amps and I wouldn't be surprised if Santana had one of their early Fender mods, then moved on to the "real" Boogies when they finally came out. I used to play with a guy who had one of the early Fender Princeton mods done by the Boogie guys and it was, hands down, the most amazing amplifier I've ever heard (for blues-oriented rock, which is what we were playing). I repeatedly tried to buy it from the guy but he was wise enough to not sell it to me.......

Best regards,
Bill

The problem with Santana is he makes it look easy and it ain't.

neck pickup, tone all the way down, that's a good place to start

ORIGINAL: John

The problem with Santana is he makes it look easy and it ain't.

technique:

It's easy for some of us, ya know

ORIGINAL: Cromberger

ORIGINAL: mike_mccue

Is it true that the early tone was a hot rodded Fender Princeton?

best,
mike

Hi, Mike,

I can't say for sure if it was a hot-rodded Princeton but I think it's a very good possibility that it was. The guys that started Mesa Boogie began by modding Fender amps and I wouldn't be surprised if Santana had one of their early Fender mods, then moved on to the "real" Boogies when they finally came out.

Yep. it was. For the story of the original Santana Princeton and the Boogies which followed:

http://www.mesaboogie.com/catalog/Acrobats-AUG07/History-p4-9.pdf

ew

ORIGINAL: pooskie

neck pickup, tone all the way down, that's a good place to start

that spells mud

(technique)

Amplitube 2 by IK Multimedia has that tone (actually two of them) as presets.

I applied it on a track that was attempting the tone and man did it sing. Since the original tone was already printed I was adding it as an FX and when the palyer ended a note the Amplitube 2 preset created a kind of wooshing sound. Probably could have usee a gate but I was just "playin around".

If you're interested, go to www.carlossantana.com, click on Players, then Musicians Corner. There is a very nice tour of guitars, amps, and footpedals that he uses. It's a great site all around - the music, the musicians through the years, lots of info.