Carlos Santana’s Guitars and Gear

By December 1969 when Santana played at Altamont, the guitar was almost completely stripped down of its original paint and the tremolo was removed leaving visible screw holes. Since we know that his two SG Specials also had the tremolo piece, it is possible that the Maestro from this guitar ended up on one of his SGs.

Album showing Santana’s Les Paul Special, and the changes it has gone through.

The Maestro tremolo (VMA-1 version – often used on cheaper Epiphones) which originally came with the guitar was moved back to make space for the stop-tailpiece. The strings were never attached to it, but for some reason Santana kept it on the guitar – most likely to balance the guitar’s weight, or he just hoped it’ll add more sustain to the sound by making the guitar heavier.

Carlos stopped using this guitar going towards 1970, when a black SG Special with white P90s took its place. He allegedly destroyed it because it wouldn’t stay in tune.

But what raises suspicion is the fact that both guitars had Tune-o-matic bridge, stop-tailpiece, and the VMA-1 tremolo which wasn’t used at all. This setup wasn’t standard on the early 60s SG Specials, which means that Santana modded the guitar(s) himself.

One version of the story is that Santana complained that the red SG he played at Woodstock wouldn’t stay in tune, and that he ended up destroying it – with hopes that the bend would cave in and buy him another guitar. If this is true, than Santana bought this black SG Special with tremolo sometime in late 1969, and installed a stop-tailpiece on it himself (same thing he did on his red SG). But, this sounds unlikely.

The SG Specials with tremolo were really rare at that time, and to say that Santana bought two of them doesn’t sound reasonable. He could’ve used the tremolo from his red SG, or from his Les Paul Special though.

Other version is that they are in fact one guitar. Instead of buying a new SG, Santana could’ve just sent his red SG to a luthier for a paintjob and adjustments. But even though this sounds more reasonable, Santana actually said himself that he destroyed the red SG because it just wouldn’t stay in tune – which obviously debunks this second theory completely.

Another white SG Special appeared year later in 1973, and it looks like that guitar was also modified – so there’s a possibility that the white guitar is final incarnation of the black SG Special (or even the original 1962 red one).

Interesting detail on this white SG is the picture painted on the headstock (this picture also appears on one of his Les Pauls in 1973) of Guru Sri Chinmoy, who Santana was a follower of from 1972 to 1981.

It’s hard to tell just by judging from the sound, but it is most likely that Santana didn’t record with this Les Paul – or any humbucker-equipped guitar – until the third album released in 1971.

The guitar was most likely a late 60s model – and it must’ve been black originally, since all the Customs made around that time were. Santana’s LP Custom featured sunburst finish, meaning that it was most likely refinished.

Update: according to one of our readers who had a chance to attend one of Carlos’ gigs in New York in 1980, Santana did indeed use a three-pickup SG on couple of songs. If you happen to know anything more about this guitar, or happen to remember seeing Santana with it, please be sure to contact us.

The guitar featured maple body and two super-humbuckers designed by Bill Lawrence. Although it was endorsed by many of the popular guitarists at the time, it was eventually dropped from the catalog in 197,. Nowadays many consider this to be the most underrated of all the Gibson solid body guitars.

Santana most likely used the guitar to some extent on the studio recording of Borboletta in 1974.

After the first prototype was made with the intention of addressing those issues, Santana still didn’t fully like it. Yamaha went back to the drawing board, and with the Carlos’ help decided on a few more changes.

They went for neck-through-body design, meaning that the neck and the body are now actually glued together. They used what is now known as the T-Cross construction, where there are two pieces of mahogany surrounding the center maple part going thought the whole width of the guitar, with a piece of teak wood (maple was used on mass-produced model) on the top of the body. All the hardware was replaced with brass, and a sustain plate was installed to sit underneath the bridge. As for the electronics, two OPG-1 Alnico V pickups were used.

Santana used this guitar from around the time it was finished in early 1976, to around 1982 when he switched to PRS. His main guitar was the actual prototype which at the time it was made still didn’t have an official name – only in July 1976 Yamaha officially released the guitar as the SG2000. It featured dark natural finish, and custom Buddha headstock inlays, as well as body decals. His second most widely SG2000 was a black model featuring somewhat similar decals.

Few details that weren’t mentioned in the video – Paul said that the two met at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD., around the time when Leon Chancler was playing drums for Santana. But going from the fact that the gig at Merriweather was played on 8/9/1980, and knowing that Leon left the band in 1976, drags some confusion into this story.

Next important thing is that we get an almost exact date when Santana started recording with PRS guitars – early 1981, or during the ‘Zebop!’ recording sessions. And lastly – we are introduced to the fact that the Washington gig on 4/21/1981 was the first concert that Santana ever played on a PRS guitar.

Now, lets actually focus on the guitar itself.

Several different models were made through the years, and most of the time Carlos does not stick to one guitar in particular. The mass-produced models include Santana I, Santana II, Santana III, Santana MD, Santana SE (Korean made), and the 25th Anniversary Santana model. The first ever PRS Santana I was made in 1995, which means that Paul made guitars for Carlos for 15 years before they actually decided to make a signature line.

The pickups used on all Santana models are designed by PRS, and in the beggining they were mostly all without the pickup covers with zebra patterns on the Santana I, but since Santana II and III they mostly feature metal covers. The body shape was designed by Paul himself as a sort of a crossover between a Stratocaster and a double-cut Les Paul Junior, and it is built using mahogany as a base, and specially selected maple wood as the top. The neck features 24.5″ scale length and 24 frets. The fretboard was Indian rosewood on the Santana I model, while the later ones feature Brazilian rosewood.

As said, it’s pointless trying to single out one guitar out of the all PRS guitars that went through Santana’s hands, since he’s kind of a person who doesn’t really stick to one guitar in particular.

His guitar tech Ed Adair speaks of a guitar nicknamed “Salmon”, which is a sort of Santana’s number one PRS, but most of the time Paul just makes a new guitar, and it gets sent to Carlos. If he ends up liking it (which he almost always does according to Paul), it becomes a part of his arsenal, and he takes it on tour. He talks very highly of Paul Reed Smith, and he trusts his skills and judgments when it comes to taking care of his guitars.