Carlos Santana - History Of His Guitars 

He brought the sunburst Strat into Guitar Center one day when I was working there. I think his regular tech was on vacation or out of town. There were sharp edges on the bridge saddles for the high E and B strings. They were constantly breaking. I was able to smooth out the sharp burrs on the saddles as a "while you wait" repair, and I had a great conversation with him and Cindy. I charged him $2 for 2 new strings, and he left happy. What a great guy. totally down to earth, and a true gentleman. Planet Earth needs more people like Carlos. It was an honor and a pleasure to do this for him, and it was one of the best days I've had at work in a long time.

As a guitarist and lifelong Santana fan, I totally agree with your conclusion that Santana’s best sound was the SG2000 and boogie combination. Having seen them countless times, I would love to see Carlos fire up the old SG2000 again!

I went into Leo's Music in Oakland in 1982 and I look down and there is Carlos' L-6S "Borbolletta" guitar with blue butterfly 🦋 wings inlayed on top. I couldn't believe it. It was on sale for $400! So I bought it. It plays and sounds great. To this day I can't believe it's in my care. A fantastic album and a piece of music history.

I had just switched from.piano to acoustic guitar when I heard WAR's 'Cisco Kid'. BB Dickerson' s bass blew me away so I gave my guitar to my sister and emptied my piggy bank and then walker down to Fed Mart where I bought a Kay Bass for $35. I rewired it to play through my stereo and that was that... Guitarists will know what I mean when I say that it had a 3/4" action...LOL... On the bright side it gave me strong fingers!

My favorite guitar tone I heard from Santana live was his sunburst Les Paul through the original Mesa Boogie Mk 1 in 1973 when playing solo's. This was during the Santana " Lotus band " era. His Les Paul used in 1973 and through much of 74 had the Bill Lawrence Super Humbuckers , designed and installed by Bill when he still worked for Gibson at that time. From there, Carlos asked Bill to have those pickups put in his next guitar , the Gibson L6-S. When Carlos came onstage to do an encore with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in May of 1974 at Wiinterland in San Francisco, he was still using the Sunburst Les Paul. I took a picture of him backstage tuning up before he went out front to play " A Love Supreme" with John McLaughlin. My 2nd favorite live tone was when Carlos played his Gibson L6-S in September of 1974 when the Santana band played at Winterland again. When Gibson started mass producing the L6-S's, Santana started complaining about Gibson's quality control, stating that he was having problems with his pickup selector switch not working right during concerts and that Gibson was cranking out these guitars " like McDonald's hamburgers" and skimping on the quality not being consistent. Next was the Yamaha 2000SG a year or two later, but his live lead tones started getting a little too distorted for my liking, even when playing with a clean tone. The sustain we definitely there but it didn't have that live singing quality and sounded too compressed instead. The PRS's ? Forget it. I never liked his live tone. To me, it sounded like his solos had a sinus infection. I also liked his early Gibson SG tones , but I never got to see him play with the original lineup.

A very welcome gear review of one of the planet's most loved and admired musicians. The one guitar Goose missed was the INCREDIBLE tone of the flamenco on Amigos, would LOVE to know what he used for this? The sounds I most associate with Carlos Santana's golden era will always be the broken rawness of Woodstock. Second, the greatest Latin-Rock album ever made, namely... Santana III (Third Album). No guitar player should ever be without this masterpiece. Third Album was meat and drink to me at school while studying for my 'O' Level exams, and remains so to this day.. the screaming, searing tones of Santana and Schon Les Pauls. Which bring me to the great Neil Schon. Next guitar review, Goose?

My dad was a big fan of Santana and he was able to see them live back in the day in Lubbock Tx. He told me that the PA was messed up and there was no vocals, so they basically just jammed for an hour and a half. Never the less he said that it was a fantastic show 👍🏻.

My guitar teacher said once that the PRS Santana model is the only PRS model he actually liked and felt had some soul, maybe because it’s one of the most Gibson-like models.

Thanks for the video. ... Seems t recall that during the early Paul Reed Smith involvement that Carlos tried out the Howard Leese guitar which Paul had built for him and what became the Santana guitar was basically an offshoot of that. That said, the articles I have on that are in storage and this is from memory only rather than written documentation.

I’ve played some festivals in Mexico with Javier Batiz, he’s a character, nice guy. I agree with you that the Yamaha was Carlos greatest tone. For those not familiar with the Oneness album, this is that set up, the Yamaha SG, Boogie amps and Carlos at their zenith. His tone throughout is sublime, especially on the opening suite, best heard on a CD or vinyl, though you can ask Alexa and she will shuffle the album for you.

When I lived in Pacific Beach, San Diego in 1985 there was an old 50's Les Paul for sale in a small guitar store. They said it was one of Carlos's guitars when he lived in Tijuana but they had no proof. It was only $1,000 but it wasn't in great shape. I think it was a gold top.

This was amazing information. As A life long fan of Santana, I appreciated every second.

This is one of the best channels on YT and this video shows it. Great research and presentation. 👍👍

Very great video thank you 🙏🏼 for all the hard work as I have always wondered about Santana’s Gibson guitars history, a reminder from 1961 to 1963,there was no SG they were actually actually “Les Paul” in that particular case that is a 1961 Gibson Les Paul Custom . Thank you from South Australia 🇦🇺

Great video as always, Ramon. I read somewhere that those white P-90s on the SG Special came from an old Les Paul gold top. Him destroying the red Woodstock SG sounds unlike him. Would’ve been smarter to just get it looked at by a luthier/repairman or just unload it or keep it for parts. 🙄 Interestingly Carlos used Strats a lot in the recording studio.

I remember a Yamaha catalogue with a beautiful black SG on the cover back in the early 80s...I was 13 or 14.... it was one of my holy grail guitars I dreamed of

My grandpa used to jam and play with Carlos Santana a lot in the 1960s.

I've had four PRS, and they're really too nasal for the most part. I've never had a Santana model, although I would like to. I play Suhr and ESP now.

Yes, on Moonflower we have mostly the great Yamaha SG. But on "She's Not There" (and some other studio tracks) he played a Strat.

Thanx Goose... that wuz great (as always) cheerios

I've always really liked Santana's playing, the dude just had such an incredible tone and it's great. Awesome as always, I'd love to see a video on guys like Daron Malakian (System of a Down), Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), James Hetfield or Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Joe Perry (Aerosmith) or Synyster Gates (Avenged Sevenfold) sometime

Excellent, enjoyed this one 👌

GOD BLESS CARLOS SANTANA 🙏 FOREVER THE VERY BEST GUITARIST 🎸 LES PAUL EVER ENCOUNTERED ♥️ ❤️ 🙌 ❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉

I think Carlos also played a white left-hand Strat upside down with the strings in the reverse order (à la Hendrix, "mirrored") on occasion. A lot of successful right-handed players in the '70s tried to do the "Jimi thing" a little bit with left-hand Strats. Steve Miller, Ritchie Blackmore, Carlos, and a few others. Most of them figured out rather quickly that playing a "reversed" Strat like that absolutely sucks for mere mortals. Everything is in the wrong place and harder to work with. You're playing an instrument that was designed to be as ergonomic as possible (by 1950s standards...) upside down. It's a bit like riding a bicycle backwards. Jimi himself only did it because he was all about having affordable equipment on the road, that could be replaced relatively easily if anything got stolen or irreparably damaged. He learned that the hard way on the Chitlin' Circuit. And he had learned to play on cheap used converted right-hand guitars in his teens. Later, literally almost every single one of his Roger-Mayer-modded Fuzz Faces got stolen from him before or after concerts, even when he was one of the biggest stars in the world. That was a constant reminder to keep it practical for him. If used left-hand Strats had been available in similar quantities and for the same price as right-hand models at the time, in all major cities, he would have played those. But they weren't, so he didn't. It really didn't go any deeper than that, no "special mojo", no supernatural "tone secrets". Availability, replaceability, and price. Same reasons why Paul McCartney played converted right-hand guitars in the late 1950s and all through the 1960s. That was all that was widely available (and affordable in the early days). He struck gold and won the lottery at the same time when he found his first left-hand Höfner bass in Hamburg. Later on, he got the left-hand 4001 when Rickenbacker worked their way into the Beatles camp by repairing/customising Lennon's guitars and offering the first twelve-string to Harrison. Then The Beatles became partners with CBS-Fender and he got a free left-hand Jazz Bass out of the deal, along with a lot of other equipment.

Goose, I think you missed a very important Santana guitar. In the mid-70s the Welcome, Lotus, Barboletta, Amigos and Festival era Carlos favored a Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard with gold top hat knobs and solid metal tuners (maybe Grovers), which you can see him pictured with on the back of the Festival album. there are a number of photographs with Carlos favoring this guitar which includes one of his talisman decals on the head stock. For those not familiar with the live Lotus album, this is a Taj Mahal of tone. Carlos pairing this guitar with his rig which consisted of the early Mach 1 Boogie and silver face Twin Reverb amps loaded with Altec Lansing speakers It’s highly possible that Europa was recorded with this guitar, as it was his main axe in the mid-70s. You can check it out closely during the 24 minute mark of the Lotus movie here on RU-vid. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KiYBWwE0EvI.htmlsi=IPq8ctLeKwbPRjzV

Nice Ramon! Yes, I agree about the Yamaha SG 2000. Used to have one of those when I was in high school. One of the guitars I really kick myself for selling. It was beautiful.!

SG Specials didn't always use P90s, by early 70s they were mini humbuckers with black covers. My cherry one had factory Bigsby. 🎸

Thanks Goose!

Great video, thanks.

A VERY interesting video to say the least!

Small correction 😢: She's Not There is most definitely his famous sunburst 1954 Strat. Also played on Open Invitation.

There’s also a red Strat in the Sensitive Kind video from 1981 🎸

Prune Music was located on Locust Street in Mill Valley, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco

Amazing guitars.

so it wasn't soo easy for Paul Reed Smith to get Carlos to play one of his guitars.....but he didn't give up...well done Paul....and yes i love your guitars too.....haa....

Carlos Santana, one of the best.

A PRS Santana II is on my wishlist.

What a fantastic video have a wonderful weekend Ramon also Monday is my friends birthday also my birthday to him be honest ❤❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊😊

Saw his band live twice. Once in 1987 in Copenhagen Denmark, where his singer was Buddy Miles. It was a bad venue and the sound was not the best inside that sporting arena. Next time was in Midtfyns Festival in Denmark, which was outdoors and it was in 1990. That one sounded way better, and there were 2 singers at that concert as far as I recall. I was a big fan of his from the early 1980's and loved his new PRS guitar. I had a great friend in high school and we were both living in the same boarding school. As he was from Switzerland he would invite me there a couple of times. At one point in 1990, he invited me to get a 4 months working visa in Switzerland, and of course I accepted. I worked hard, made good money, most of which was put aside so I could buy my own Santana-colored PRS. After the 4 months, I traveled though Germany back to Denmark, and had contacted a music store in Koblenz, that I would be coming by to buy a PRS. They didn't have the yellow color-burst I wanted and the others they had, had the narrow/thick necks. I wanted a thin/wide neck, so I just bough an all-black, all-mahogany PRS. Still have it. A wonderful guitar that never ever changed and is just rock-solid.

Santana plays stuff that most of the other guitar heroes cant play but hardly ever get mentioned.

Fantastic Guitarist.

In my early days he was my biggest inspiration.., now I cant listen to his solos anymore. He literally plays the same solo on every tune on all albums😂

The Guy had magic in fingers WHATEVER he played.

Does anyone know what guitar and amp he recorded Europa from the Amigos LP? It was released in 1976 and I thought I read somewhere that he used his '68 Les Paul but never said what amp. It seems on that LP he really got that violin type sustain that he was searching for but I'm not sure if he had the Yamaha and Mesa Boogie by then. That sound is so pure and clear if you use good headphones when listening the tone will make your eyes water, at least it does mine. 😭

Great Doc…it’s L6S…

Awesome

My friend had sg2000....you require weight lifting belt to use it

Is it me..or in the first pic of the Kay bass.. he's playing lefthanded?? IS this photo backwards or is he "playing" with us for the photo symmetry?

00:55 Was he left handed back then??

👍👍👍👍

prune music was in Mill Valley

One of his guitars played the solo for the song transdermal celebration by ween. A friend of dean ween worked in a studio where santana was about to record and they cheekyly borrowed the guitar in the middle of the night and recorded the solo.

Getty Images - some of the best stock images around.

i like carlos santana music.

Does anyone do a history of John McLaughlin's guitars?

I thought he playede a Gibson S1 for a bit (?)

Carlos can play one string cigar box guitar and it will sound like a symphony

Small correction to your information in the video....the SG 175-B and SG 2000 brass sustain plate is not placed under the tailpiece, but under the Tune-O-Matic bridge. I totally agree abaut the Yamaha and the Boogie. I actually play a Yamaha SG 2000 and a Boogie MK1 with an Altec 417-8h Series II speaker in it in my Santana tribute band, To me the most epic sound / tone he had and according to a majority of die hard Santana fans his best ever. . I never understood why he switched to PRS and Dumble amps....waaaaayyy too muddy making him sound like poo

L6-S....not LS6

First picture shows him holding the base upside down and he is holding it as a left handed... and the band looks amused!

L6-S. I had one.

You mentioned a Gibson LS-6, incorrect! It was a Gibson L6-S...

Fantastic and very informative video...many thanks. Agreed that Carlos had his best tone for the Moonflower era with the SG2000, I wish he'd go back to the Yamaha! As a guitarist my self I recently tried out a set of 'Moonflower' pickups which are replicas of the ones in Carlos's Yamaha SG. I fitted them yo my FGN Les Paul Custom and they can be heard here if you or anyone is interested:- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BKLsOgr7Lv8.html - I'm not one to spam my own videos but my channel is very small and I'm not bothered if it stays that way! Thanks again 👍😎

Jalisco.not Jalasco

CARLOS SANTANA ONLY PLAYS THE VERY BEST GUITAR 🎸 OUT THERE AND ITS LES PAUL AND THATS BECAUSE CARLOS SANTANA IS THE VERY BEST IN THE WORLD WHEN IT COMES TO GUITARIST 🎸 PEACE AND LOVE ALWAYS TO CARLOS SANTANA FOREVER 🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤

It’s L6S not LS6

I play a Gibson L6S. It has proven to be more recognisable than me through the years 🙂I was soundchecking in a club in Sydney one time and the sound guy (with a very thick European accent) spoke to me about it. We mentioned Santana’s “Rainbow” and this guy said “ah yes I remember that guitar. I really hated it” with an odd tone in his voice. It was only as I was going home from the gig that it occurred to me that this guy might have met the Rainbow personally as a sound guy for Santana. Did I have a brush with fame?

oy, It's a L6S ya mook.

😬 *Promosm*

Carlos had 5 fingers at the age of 12

Its pronounced Hal eesco.

The prototype was an L6S NOT LS6 please edit your video for accuracy

Noel Gallaghers Guitars .....would be interesting

What happened to the Yamaha relationship - and WHY doesn't Carlos even ever mention playing that Yamaha?? Its like a taboo subject??? WTH?

Yamaha was my favorite...dirty and seemed ready to "take off" ...seemed like he had to tame that guitar a bit. Don't like PRS sound...to me it is too clean and neutered...

why is he playing left handed on a right handed bass? it even looks like it is strung right handed..

9:10 Oh dear! Suit and sandals .... how tasteless !!! 🤢

What a shame to defile the SG with Chinmoy's vile image. 😢😢😢

Carlos has a spirituality in his playing which is unique but like all humbucker pup players he doesn’t have a great sound

Santana is the most over rated guitarist ever .

Santana very bad guitarist