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

Thanks, ew, great article on that site. You'd think that I would have *known* this to be a fact since I own both a Boogie and Mesa amplifiers...... And I *still* wish I'd have been able to talk that guy into selling me his modded Princeton. ;>) Great story that it was Santana who coined the name "Boogie" when he referred to the modded Fender.

Best regards,
Bill

ORIGINAL: D K

I'm not a guitar player and I couldn't afford a Holiday Inn last night so I'm asking Guitar players here ...

How do I get that Santana type tone? - I'm not even close to that planet as far as a player goes so I'm really just wondering what I need in the chain to get a close approximation or starting point


thanks......

In general, Carlos uses a PRS Santana Guitar, Mesa Boogie Amp, and GHS Santana Strings. But you don't necessarily need to recreate Santana's Gear in order to emulate his tone.

The most important facets are: humbucking pickups, and a very overdriven tube amp (preferably by the amp itself, not by using pedals). Mess with the tone controls on the amp until you get the rounded, mid-rangey sound that Carlos favors. For those super long sustained notes, position the guitar and amp so they feedback just enough to keep the notes going, but not enough to "squeal."

For more info, there's a ton of Santana info at this site:

Ultimate Santana

Good luck!

you realize, of course, that santana, sounds just like santana, no matter which guitar or amp he plays...........?

same with acoustic guitar.....
sounds like santana.

ORIGINAL: Anubis

Woh! Check out those crazy picks Carlos is using. I've NEVER seen those before!

hello

i'm a big fan of Carlos SANTANA.....his sound is like a earth beat .......

you can find here my setup with digitech (GNX4) and mesa boogie (DC5)
http://devadipcarlossantana.blogspot.com/


have you some presets ? trade some presets...?

best regards



dom

it's in the fingers, folks, it's in the fingers.

John


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

It is easy. You're just making in sound hard.
















***** I know, I know it's a 3+ year old post. I just wanted to set John straight.