Modern Santana Tone

[Clone Funk]

I have a PRS copy made by Hamer and I'm looking for Santana's recent tone. I know he uses a PRS, which probably has PRS pickups but I want to put Duncans in the Hamer to get as close as I can to that sound. Which pups will get me there?

 

[aleclee]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

FWIW, his current guitars are equipped with PRS Dragon II pickups.

 

[Clone Funk]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

Thanks for the info. But are there are Duncans that sound like those?

 

[NathanCahill]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

In a word, No.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

Do you have Santana's favorite amp and guitar and can you play just like him? (Same licks, same vibrato, same touch, etc.) That's where his tone comes from.

I have a feeling if Carlos picked up my Les Paul and played it through my Fender Super Reverb amp he'd sound more like Santana than I would playing his own guitar through his own amp and trying to sound like him.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

Do you have Santana's favorite amp and guitar and can you play just like him? (Same licks, same vibrato, same touch, etc.) That's where his tone comes from.

Allow me to disagree. Unless you define "tone" as something other than timbre, licks and vibrato don't affect tone much if at all.

I won't argue that Carlos' style is very distinctive and easily recognizable but that's quite different from saying his timbre does not vary from rig to rig.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

Allow me to disagree. Unless you define "tone" as something other than timbre, licks and vibrato don't affect tone much if at all.

Your talent and individual unique personality as well as touch, vibrato and the way your two hands coordinate with each other ARE where your tone comes from...your choice of guitar, pickup and amp are also important, but no where near as important as simply: who you are.

That's what Carlos would tell you too.

Anyways: get some vintage Humbuckers like the Duncan Antiquity, Seth Lover or 59 and a Mesa Boogie Mark I with an original late 1960's Altec-Lansing 12" speaker.

If you've got the chops and the talent you should be able to approximate Carlos Santana's sound.

 

[Brett Valentine]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

I get pretty nice results with an Alnico 2 Pro in the neck and a Pearly Gates in the bridge (tone rolled off a bit, but I'm also using a 0.047µf cap on my tone control to get things a bit darker). The Alnico Pro 2, I think, is warm enough and has a nice midrange. The 2 p/u's together can get that warmth and a bit of that "ringing" mid tone.

It's not exactly the same, but it still sounds great through my Boogie Mark 4, and (interestingly enough) also sounds pretty convincing through a Marshall Ed-1 "Edward" Compressor, into a Fulldrive 2, into a Fat Boost and into a clean Fender, or even into a clean Roland JC-120. A little less so through a POD set to a similar clean amp.

I don't know if you'd call it his "modern" sound, but I can definitely get an "impression" of him with that setup.

Brett

 

[Stevo]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

I won't argue that Carlos' style is very distinctive and easily recognizable but that's quite different from saying his timbre does not vary from rig to rig.

I agree. I think his modern tone sucks royally - very compressed and thin. I liked his old tone a lot more. It seemed more natural and a lot less electronic.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

I agree. I don't think Carlos ever got a better tone than he got on the first couple of albums. Tunes like Black Magic Woman. I'll take that over the tone he has today. It's just more natural and vocal and since he doesn't have all that overdrive thing going, he had to work a little harder...and I like the feeling that gives his playing. His tone now sounds like his amp is doing all the work for him...and to me it lacks the passion and energy of his earlier stuff.

I would not call his current tone "thin" tho...

Lew

 

[Humbucker]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

I think Santana's current live tone is pretty terrible, but I do like his recent recorded tone. I think "The Game of Love" (yeah, I know, dumb pop song) has some really nice liquidy, vocal guitar sounds.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

Carlos Santanas Tone could never be bad!!! I agree 100% with Lew is his Hands are really where his tone comes from. I also agree that his "sound" now is not as good as his lolder music. If I remember correctly he was playing an SG special thru a Twin, and Acoustic Amps. Those old Acoustics were one of the best SS amps I ever heard (no where near as good as the twin). The record he did with John Lee Hooker he used a LP Standard thru a Twin( Ithink it was a standard). It was heavenly!!

 

[funkmeblue]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

In his main red guitar the pups are duncan '59 in neck and a custom in bridge both with nickel covers.......the bridge pup has a 370k resistor from its hot to ground reducing some of the high end.......the neck pup is 1/8" from the strings and the bridge is 1/16".........his action at the 12th fret is 4/64" on the treble side and 5/64" on the bass side.....there is also a 180 pf capacitor on the volume pot for a volume kit........his blue guitar has a prs dragon 2 with 2 conductors in the bridge and a santana 3 pup in the neck which is a copy of a duncan '59 with cover........don't forget 20 feet of cord and a boogie mk 1 and a dumble overdrive

 

[Clone Funk]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

In his main red guitar the pups are duncan '59 in neck and a custom in bridge both with nickel covers.......the bridge pup has a 370k resistor from its hot to ground reducing some of the high end.......the neck pup is 1/8" from the strings and the bridge is 1/16".........his action at the 12th fret is 4/64" on the treble side and 5/64" on the bass side.....there is also a 180 pf capacitor on the volume pot for a volume kit........his blue guitar has a prs dragon 2 with 2 conductors in the bridge and a santana 3 pup in the neck which is a copy of a duncan '59 with cover........don't forget 20 feet of cord and a boogie mk 1 and a dumble overdrive

Thats what I'm talkin about. :smoker: I just wanna get in the ballpark somewhere, I'm not trying to nail it exactly. I think that will work, get a 59 for the neck and a Custom for the bridge.

 

[nepalnt21]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

why dont u just buy a set of dragon II's? plenty of stores sell them, and im sure the shop nearset to u can order them for u.

 

[funkmeblue]

Re: Modern Santana Tone

santana 3's would get you closer than dragon2's......I have santana 3's in my santana 3 and I think they sound great....but I think duncans would sound better....prs makes guitars.......duncan makes pickups.......and you will pay more for prs pups