Chasing the Santana tone again.

[jeremy]

yep. boogie mk1 and buckers = santana tone. the short scale prs dont hurt either

[Mincer]

I always thought that sound is the original Boogie's cascading gain design. Playing a MK I, it is hard not to sound like Santana.

[Lewguitar]

I saw that. And what's funny is, he uses a line-driver . . . at the end of the 50' cable.

Nice video. I missed that one. Here's another nice one of that tone, and especially, with him playing gently at times.

He's on the bridge pickup for the whole 6 minutes of that tune!

I've been working a lot with swapping magnets in the Antiquitys in my PRS guitars to get my version of some of the tones of my favorite 60's players.

I can get pretty close to the tone in that tune, Samba Pa Ti, with the stock Antiquity bridge humbucker in my own PRS Singlecut.

My Antiquitys came with roughcast A2 magnets stock.

[ArtieToo]

And a 50' cable to lose some treble!

I saw that. And what's funny is, he uses a line-driver . . . at the end of the 50' cable.

Nice video. I missed that one. Here's another nice one of that tone, and especially, with him playing gently at times.

[Lewguitar]

He has an Altec Lansing Alnico 12" speaker in his favorite Boogie amp. If I remember right it's a 417 8C model.

That speaker is a big part of his sound, IMO. It's not manufactured anymore. Speakers are so important.

On that tune it doesn't sound like his guitar's volume control is turned up all the way. I like it.

Solid rosewood necks on his guitars. That's got to give them a unique sound and sustain.

And a 50' cable to lose some treble!

I know Carlos used to use 50's Gibson PAFs.

His sound is so full and warm. Unlike anyone else's.

Now he supposedly uses the "PRS Santana" pickups in his PRS.

[ArtieToo]

I know, I know . . . it's in his fingers.

I'm sitting here, listening to some Santana, with my morning coffee. I can't get over that sweet, creamy, subtle distortion that he gets, even at low volume. I know he runs into a wah, (which you seldom see him step on, on stage), so I'm guessing that he sets it in one position, then leaves it there. But, it's hard for me to imagine that that sweet distortion comes from amp overdrive because he gets it even when he's playing softly. On the Premier Guitar rig rundown site, they show no distortion pedal on his board.

Here's such a great example of that tone:

How does he do it?