Actually, the site's www.santana.com

ew

ORIGINAL: stratcat33511

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

+1

Some don't understand the importance on technique. You can only get go far by "feel". They really go hand in hand though. To have both is very good.

Believe he used the SG for the first album (and Woodstock), then on Abraxas (Black Magic Woman days) he played a Les Paul through a modded Fender. The modded Fenders blossomed into Mesa Boogie. He then played a Yamaha guitar for several years and they made a Carlos Santana model. My buddy Stratton had one and a Mesa Boogie. Tone for days.. Then he moved on to PRS..

ORIGINAL: Platano

Believe he used the SG for the first album (and Woodstock), then on Abraxas (Black Magic Woman days) he played a Les Paul through a modded Fender. The modded Fenders blossomed into Mesa Boogie. He then played a Yamaha guitar for several years and they made a Carlos Santana model. My buddy Stratton had one and a Mesa Boogie. Tone for days.. Then he moved on to PRS..

Hi Joe, yep, I bought the gear as close as I could get to the rig Carlos had at the time, a Yamaha SG2000 (weighs over 10 lbs., still have it) and a Mesa Boogie Mk1. Found that I had to CRANK the amp to get close, which was paint-peeling loud. Much of Santana's tone comes from the interaction of guitar and amp at high volumes. Ulitmately not practical for those of us not playing stadiums.

You can get into that tonal territory with more moderate volumes in a variety of ways, but I think that American voiced amps (blackface Fender, Boogie, Dumble, Fuchs) with either a really good OD Channel or a smooth OD pedal will be a good start.

I LOVE the Abraxas album. My favorites of all his tones.

EVERYBODY used the SG during that period of the late sixties...

Santana
Terry Kath(my favorite player)
Pete Townsend
Eric Clapton
Tony Iommi
Steve Miller
Sam Andrew(Big Brother)
and many others

ORIGINAL: ew

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

Cool, thanks for the info guys. I wasn't sure why I remembered that and it seemed almost mythical so I figured I should ask rather than just blurt it out as a "fact".

best regards,
mike

ORIGINAL: pooskie

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

agreed


I can get close to his tone by doing this with my custom shop brian moore and mesa heartbreaker

ORIGINAL: stratcat33511

ORIGINAL: pooskie

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

that spells mud

(technique)

Actually, that spells Clapton's 'Woman Tone'

Check out the latest issue of Guitar Player mag. Carlos talks extensively about his tone and a lot more about how he achieves it

I'm a drummer, so the only thing I can really pick is my well anyways, I got the free freeamp sim and put it on the singin' preset and although I can't hardly play- I FEEL like Santana and have a blast imagining how I'm shredding and I do turn it up to 11 . So I'd say that'll get you started as there are lots of fun ways to tweak it and lots of presets to start learning how much guitarists have to choose from to craft various sounds. Ara www.aratunes.us