Hi,

Has any one an idea of how to get the Carlos Santana's guitar sound? I now that it has to do with Santana playing itself, the guitar, etc, but I am most interested on the effect processing used for it. I mean: is a distortion? an overdrive? or what?. Has some one one a good starting point for this?

Thanks, John

No problem! Go to this site and you will see his setup plus all kinds of other Santana stuff.

http://guitar.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.santana.com/Carlos/Equipment/

If the link is faulty, go to his home page www.santana.com and then PLAYERS and MUSICIAN'S CORNER.

While I'm sure his setup changes all the time, some years ago, Guitar Player magazine was giving away a complete Carlos Santana guitar rig that was supposed to be a duplicate of his own personal touring and recording rig. Judging from the amount of gear that was included in the give-away, I assumed they had done their homework. I think I might still actually have the magazine somewhere but it's many years old already and probably not representative of what he's using now.

Here's what I remember:

PRS - obviously
Mesa - there was a stereo power amp and Tri-Axis preamp in a rack
Chandler Echo unit
Hi-Watt 4/12 cabinets (two if I remember)
two (2) Fender Twin Reverb amps
I think there might have been another Mesa Boogie combo amp in there

There was some sort of switching device (obviously)
There were a couple of stomp boxes but I don't remember what.

So that's basically what I remember from some years ago. I think that creamy Santana distortion is the result of Mesa though. He's been a Mesa Boogie user since day one almost. I think the first few Santana albums he used a modified Fender Champ or something that the Mesa guys built for him (Mesa started out in a garage I think and they modified Fender amps). If I remember correctly. Anyone have more specifics chime in I'm a big Santana fan. One of my personal favs is Caravanserai

PS - sorry I see the link to his home page above with current amps and stuff. Very cool

My band just recorded a cover of smooth for our "Bar Demo" cd.... you are welcomed to hear it..

http://www.cezarsghost.com/files/smooth.mp3

if you like the guitar sound.. I would be happy to tell you how we got it... you may be surprised....

/begin disclaimer

....keep in mind tho.. that this location is just for the bands personal use.. these are still rough mixes and I use the site to give the other guys in the band ( all 2 of them.. besides me.. i'm the drummer/keyboardist/engineer ) updates on the mixing of the CD..

so these songs are NOT to be linked or used in any other way than a demonstration of our bands ability....

/end disclaimer

For the do-it-yourselfer at home, the basic sound is a combination of humbucker pickups (Gibson Les Paul, PRS, etc.) and heavy pre-amp overdrive (crank the preamp up and turn down the master volume). Something like an MXR Dyna Comp pedal out front set for mucho sustain probably wouldn't hurt either. Oye Como VA!

BTW - I still remember seeing Carlos get wiggy with an old EchoPlex EP-3 at a New Year's Eve concert at San Francisco's Cow Palace back in 1976-77. I can truly say that nobody ever worked that thing quite like he did in creating a feedback loop that went up, up and away for a mind-blowing experience. Syke-a-delic, fer sure.

Now, what I'm describing above is how you might go about getting *that* sound at home, on the cheap. The way Carlos gets *that* sound, inasmuch as I read this in a GP interview with him, depends on a specific soundcheck technique, where he will crank up the volume on his amps, then walk around the stage/recording space until he finds the "sweet spot" where his guitar is right on the verge of feeding back. He then marks a cross on the floor with gaffer's tape, and when he gets down to performing/recording, he basically moves in a tight area around and on top of that "sweet spot" so he can milk the sustain as he needs to.

Unfortunately, this is usually hard to do at home without getting the cops called on you. I still think, for my money, a PRS or Les Paul played through a vintage Marshall JTM-45 amp with master volume modification would nail it. I've never been a Boogie fan, I'm afraid, as they're somewhat of a one-trick pony. YMMV

Hi,

Thanks to all you for your comments and links.

Cezar, I liked the guitar sound of your band. Thanks for sharing. I would like to know how do you get it?

No PRS's were harmed in the making of this recording.. it was actually a Strat going through a Marshall 50 watt head into 2 4 speaker cabinets. I close mic'd a cone with a dynamic ( halfway between the edge and center.. about 30 degrees off axis ) and mid mic'd ( about 5 feet away ) with a Studio Projects C1 ( I love that mic ).. and a bunch of gobo's that I built

he went from the Strat to a yamaha effects box with a just a tad of delay then to a boss compresser...

had to play with the pickup selector and tone knob to get a nice round sound... .

believe it or not.. the hardest thing was not believing the sound you heard with your ears.... it seemed that when we had a good sound in the room.. the mics heard something totally different.....we kept having to turn the volume and drive levels down... until it was very clean sounding in the room.. but mics captured that nice round sound that you hear.

and it wasn't just for this song... we had to go through the same process for our other songs on the demo cd.. ( ranging from Rush to van halen to Buffet...)

The Santana sound is mostly in the man's hands. He sounds the same with the PRS as he did with the Yamaha's. The Mesa's sure help but what he gets out of the Boogies isn't really a typical sound of Boogies IMHO.

The funny thing is that when I use a Dual Rectifier with Boogie quad box (great combination) I often get told the playing is Santana like. Another funny thing is that I play a '79 Strat with lace sensors (a smooth single coil if ever). The final funny thing is that these comments crop up whenever the song at the time is a minor key. Ok there's one more funny thing.. I definitely don't set out to sound like Carlos but I listened to a LOT of him a ot of years ago and I find it hard not to lean to him on anything in a minor key that has distortion and the space to let it go a bit. He really owns the tasty minor distortion realm I believe.

Anyways, he's good!

Cheers!

I played a PRS Santana a few weeks ago at a local guitar shop in Dayton, Ohio. I played thru a couple different boutique tube amps. I was very surprised how close I could get to a Santana sound without pedals or fooling around with amp settings. The owner told me that the pickups had a lot to do with the sound (duh but more so on this guitar).

This guitar was hells-bells for single note solo work, but I must admit it sounded very muddy to me when I played chords. IMHO, the bottom line is I didn't like the PRS Santana because it is a 1 trick pony. I played a PRS Custom 22 with a tremolo bar that is very much on my mind right now.

Darryl

My Guitarist just purchased a '97 custom 22 ten top with the bird inlays.... he got such a sweet deal ($1300) ... but needs to get it set up for him.... he likes thinner strings and the action is a tad high....

I wish we would have had the guitar when we recorded smooth.. ( see post above )....