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Post subject: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 7:59 am
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I am a dedicated Fender man but I love Santana. I have a Squier 70s Strat, an American Professional Jazzmaster and a Champion 20 amp. How can get Santana's tone with these tools?


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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 8:17 am
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You can use pedals with a Strat to get a close enough Gibson SG or PRS sound if
you tweak the settings but a Gibson will never sound like a Strat, IMO.

From the web:

"Sound Effects

Preferring to get his sound from humbucking pickups and an over driven tube amp, Santana employs effects sparingly. His current pedal board includes a Mu-Tron Volume/Wah Wah pedal that he has used for nearly his entire career, as well as an Ibanez Tube Screamer (added much more recently, and used very rarely), and an Ibanez Modulation Delay.

Though it’s hard to detect effects on most of the Santana albums, he has sometimes used a particular technique where he finds a spot within the Wah Wah pedal’s range that he likes, then leaves it there. This is especially evident on Abraxas’ instrumental ballad, “Samba Pa Ti.”

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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 8:57 am
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Great answer, Mike! I totally agree, "a Gibson will never sound like a Strat" and vice versa.

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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 10:08 am
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1. Use your guitar's neck pickup and roll the guitar's tone control all the way down.
2. Turn up your amp's middle tone control to max.
3. Get yourself a clean OD/boost pedal such as a Fulltone OCD.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 5:40 pm
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Thanks! I also am going to check into the equipment he used for Santana IV. I read an interview that said he recorded the album with a Strat and Stevie Ray Vaughn’s amp. Stevie came to him in a dream and told him to borrow the amp from Jimmy Vaughn!


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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2020 7:07 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
1. Use your guitar's neck pickup and roll the guitar's tone control all the way down.
2. Turn up your amp's middle tone control to max.
3. Get yourself a clean OD/boost pedal such as a Fulltone OCD.

Arjay

I like Santana's music a lot and have been playing some recently so I'm going to give that a try. I don't have a PRS but I have a Gibson Les Paul and SG (490/498 & 57/57+). And, now that I have a tube amp again, maybe I can get a Santana-like tone. Thanks for the tip!

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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2020 9:50 am
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My friend, Jon gets a great Santana tone here on his version of Europa :

https://soundcloud.com/jon-finn-3/europ ... tana-cover

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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2020 9:39 am
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Miami Mike wrote:
My friend, Jon gets a great Santana tone here on his version of Europa :

https://soundcloud.com/jon-finn-3/europ ... tana-cover

Coincidentally, Europa is what I've been playing. Jon sure does have the tone down. I've never seen the backing track site "Bobby's Backing Tracks" before and it looks great.

You wouldn't happen to know just how Jon got that tone would you?

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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2020 11:38 am
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Marky Forrest wrote:
Coincidentally, Europa is what I've been playing. Jon sure does have the tone down. I've never seen the backing track site "Bobby's Backing Tracks" before and it looks great.

You wouldn't happen to know just how Jon got that tone would you?


Jon Finn is a professor at Berklee School of Music and plays with the Boston Pops (Keith Lockhart) as
well as his own group when not teaching. He's a great player and knows tons of people but I'm
afraid to say, no, I don't know how he got that tone. I imagine he has many guitars available to
him as well as amps and effects but I'm guessing he used Pro Tools and recorded it online.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060214204 ... jfinn.html

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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2020 4:28 pm
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Thanks Mike. I took a course at Berkley College of Music taught by Professor George Russell. It's a very good school, IMO. I'm going to give the suggestions a try.

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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2020 5:31 pm
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Marky Forrest wrote:
Thanks Mike. I took a course at Berkley College of Music taught by Professor George Russell. It's a very good school, IMO. I'm going to give the suggestions a try.


Yes it is. A drummer friend who teaches there (Bob Gullotti) just died on Saturday. He played
mostly jazz but also drummed with the jam band, Phish, as well his own band, The Fringe. Sad news...


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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2020 9:03 am
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Miami Mike wrote:
Marky Forrest wrote:
Thanks Mike. I took a course at Berkley College of Music taught by Professor George Russell. It's a very good school, IMO. I'm going to give the suggestions a try.


Yes it is. A drummer friend who teaches there (Bob Gullotti) just died on Saturday. He played
mostly jazz but also drummed with the jam band, Phish, as well his own band, The Fringe. Sad news...

So sorry for the loss of your friend, Mike. Seems like the older we get the more friends we lose. It's good that we're still here but so sad to lose those we were close to.

I sent a PM to your friend, Jon, and I just read his reply:

"Hi Marky!

Boy, I forgot all about that track! The guitar I used was an Ibanez custom-made S-series guitar with Seymour Duncan pickups. It ran through Fractal Audio Axe-Fx processor, running a preset that I put together myself. I don't think I used a pick when playing the melody if I remember right. The tone gets quite a lot warmer without a pick.

Thanks for asking about it, and thanks for listening!"

I hope you don't mind, I mentioned you as a mutual friend. I didn't think you would mind.

You're right about Jon having a lot of nice equipment at his disposal! I'm going to try playing Europa without a pick. :)

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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 10:53 pm
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Bear in mind that Carlos occasionally plays Strats onstage; there was an old photo showing him playing a late 1960s Olympic White maple-neck model upside down.

Image


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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2020 8:37 pm
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A Strat is not the only Fender to have greased Carlos’ hands:



As Mike alluded to (sorry to hear of your friend Bob Gullotti, Mike) pedals are not for everyone, and another that takes the minimalist approach like Santana is this fella who explains it pretty well. YMMV.



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Post subject: Re: Santana Tone Using Fender gear
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 7:37 am
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"I need my feet to stand up", Keith Richards

That's a good one, Gary. :lol: I haven't found that Santana tone yet. I've tried using the bridge HB (490 & 57), rolling off the tone on the guitar and raising the mid on the amp but it didn't do it. I'm playing Europa, an easy song, that has that classic Santana tone. I know he wasn't big on pedals but I may try adding some. If I find a good setup, I'll post it.

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