Chasing the Santana tone again.

[jeremy]

i really dont think its a wah. ive seen him live and there is a wah on stage but i could see when he used it and it was very seldom. i think its the guitar and the amp. tons of mids and a good amount of gain, then roll the volume back on the guitar

[ArtieToo]

I've just been playing with my wah, into several different distortions, at different levels. I can't get that tone. I guess I'll just have set my guitar down, and listen to Carlos music. That's not a bad thing.

[Lewguitar]

In that first clip, it sounds like a Mark I roaring with that classic Santana sound, but the volume on the guitar is on 1, so it can't really come through. I hear the compression of the Boogie preamp, but the note just dies after that, like what happens when you use tons of preamp gain but keep the volume on the guitar low.

Right. I like to do that too.

I don't own a super high gain amp so I set it for a great clean tone and then use some pedals. Have a Klon KTR and Dover Drive. But the pedals I have allow me to turn the volume knob down on my guitar to clean things up just a little and catch my breath.

Or just get a little more breath into my overdriven tone and less distortion.

Carlos' tone has a lot of breath in it.

When it's good anyway.

Sometimes he overdoes it and then his sound gets too saturated too.

[Mincer]

In that first clip, it sounds like a Mark I roaring with that classic Santana sound, but the volume on the guitar is on 1, so it can't really come through. I hear the compression of the Boogie preamp, but the note just dies after that, like what happens when you use tons of preamp gain but keep the volume on the guitar low.

[ArtieToo]

Yup. So true.

[Lewguitar]

That clip sounded great. Sweet tone. I have several wah's. My favorite is the AMT "Japanese Girl" wah. It has a 3-position switch so that you can tailor the EQ curve to the guitar.

Lew: Part of what I'm talking about is that subtle creamy dirt he seems to get independent of how hard he lays into his picking. I love that tone.

I love Carlos tone too.

I've seen him live using too much overdrive too, where he didn't get his tone.

Just a lot of cliched overdrive like you've heard lesser talents get a million times.

Carlos excites the strings differently than most of us. He uses HUGE triangular picks that almost no one but Carlos uses! And the way he holds that big pick is "odd".

Most of us couldn't play with them and then we wonder how he gets his tone!

He's a very unique guy. His sound is oozing with soul and spirituality and feeling.

I'll bet if Carlos plugged into my stuff he'd sound like Carlos.

And if I plugged into his stuff I'd still sound like me because I would play the way I always do and play the notes and melodies and licks that come naturally to me and which I'm drawn to play.

[ArtieToo]

If you don't have a wah (to do the cocked wah thing; which makes the guitar tone very vocal or honky depending on your taste), try this:

That clip sounded great. Sweet tone. I have several wah's. My favorite is the AMT "Japanese Girl" wah. It has a 3-position switch so that you can tailor the EQ curve to the guitar.

Lew: Part of what I'm talking about is that subtle creamy dirt he seems to get independent of how hard he lays into his picking. I love that tone.

[Lewguitar]

I don't think a cocked wah wah pedal is how Carlos does it. He may do that occasionally, but that's not the secret.

Paul Reed Smith says that the first time he met Carlos, Carlos was at a music store wailing away through a little battery operated PIGNOSE!

Paul says it was all there. The tone, the sustain...all of it.

I think the secret is Carlos himself. His personality, his musical tastes, his passion and his talent.

That old snakeskin Boogie with an Altec Lansing 417 8C speaker helps a lot!

Virtually no one uses those old Altec 12's anymore...just Carlos.

And then we marvel at his unique tone!

[LLL]

If you don't have a wah (to do the cocked wah thing; which makes the guitar tone very vocal or honky depending on your taste), try this:

grab an EQ and put it in front of the amp. try either 500Hz or 800Hz and boost said frequency. Then roll down the treble a hair at some point in your rig (guitar, eq, amp).

Here's a clip of mine from the last SDUGF Solo Comp; I used a Fulltone WahFul as a parked wah, and there's something very vocal about it.

BTW, if you set a wah at the correct spot, your note will sustain for a long time.

[dystrust]

"Parked Wah." I think that's it. Find the sweet spot. Then leave it alone.

It's late. Let's come back to this.

It may be a parked wah, but a lot of it is the Boogie Mark series lead tone. The rotary tone controls are really early in the circuit, and the amps have a ton of midrange. Lots of heavier bands used those amps, but it's really hard to dial in a Metallica, Dream Theater, or even G'NR tone without the graphic EQ. I've heard that BITD John Petrucci had his amp set to 'EQ Auto' which automatically engages the graphic EQ when the lead channel is activated. This would be his heavy rhythm sound, and he would use the secondary footswitch to turn the graphic EQ off for leads. The amp has plenty of compression and gain as-is, so a separate boost isn't really necessary.

[ArtieToo]

"Parked Wah." I think that's it. Find the sweet spot. Then leave it alone.

It's late. Let's come back to this.

[Mincer]

I liked his sound a lot when I first started playing, but it got tiring after awhile. Not all Boogie players have that quality to me, though. Maybe it is his EQ choice, or that parked wah sound.

[Lewguitar]

Check out this Lansing 417 8C on Reverb. I think it's a big part of his tone. He keeps it in that snakeskin Boogie. https://reverb.com/item/34885897-alt...973-gray-white

[jeremy]

that was a very different tone to my ears though. i loved the cranked fender and sg, but the boogie is a different sound

[PFDarkside]

He sounded just as good through Fenders on the first few albums. He plays loud. Loud Fenders sound great and are very dynamic.