RR said:
Being from the "old school" of Fenders and Santana used Fenders at Woodstock ('69) although rumored that's when he started using Boogies, the Mark I is closest what tone you are looking for.
The Mark IIB (with Yamaha 2000 guitar) is Santana's Zebop era.
Mentioned here is Studio .22 I own one and not even close to Fender. Maybe the lay-off the preamp gain and over driving the power tubes you get a kind of "sustain" that Carlos got. But the stack tone is different.
Yes, the Mark II and Mark III (as well as Mark IIC) are different animals. The stack tone changed. I was about to trade in my Mark IIB for a Mark III but the tone was way, way different. Its as though MESA was going in a different direction.
I know ones are going to argue that their Mark IV or Mark V could get a Fender like tone but depending on your "Fender" tolerance and what is accpetable as "close to Fender", I find something just a bit different tonewise. My opinion though.
Thanks for your insight. Being I heard Santana live during the 1970's many times, I was just getting started playing in bands and also paid attention to Carlos' sound, trying to notice both his amp and guitar changes.
I recognized a difference in his tones, but I didn't know where to draw the line from where his AMP tone began to change. It was easy to note the tone differences in his guitar choices but not as easy from one model of a Boogie to the next.
He made many changes starting from the SG/ Fender Twin combinations to the LP / Twin to the LP/ Boogie Mk1 all within a couple years or so. Through this period, I loved his tone (even the Woodstock solid state GK amp wasn't too bad. The Acoustic 360 was all David Brown's bass.) Every time I saw Santana through the early and mid 1970's, he had 2 Twins stacked and a footswitch to toggle between the Fenders and Boogie for his lead tone.
My favorite Carlos tone of all was his Les Paul through the Mesa Mk1 when I saw the "Lotus" Santana lineup live. I noticed a subtle change in 1974 when Carlos started using the L6-S. It was still very good to my ear, but not as rich as the LP, IMO.
When Amigos came out and they went on tour again, Carlos was using the Yamaha and I don't know what model Boogie it was, I think it was a separate head and cabinets when I saw them. Based on my personal taste, I didn't care for his tone nearly as much. It sounded more distorted and less organic..IMHO.
From there, based on what I heard live, his tone drifted further away from what he had during the Lotus period. Once the PRS came in, I lost interest. I just wanted to remember that incredible tone he had 10 years earlier.
So "RR", thanks for letting me know about the MK IIB (and Yamaha guitar) during the Zebop, maybe even Marathon years. That's not the tone that wowed me.
Really, RR and company, this is the amp info I'm trying to figure out, so I know what to avoid. Without being Carlos and not having his fingers and toes, I won't "be" him ( I can live with that), but there is something special about the Mk1 and humbuckers. I played in a band in the late 1970's with a guy who used a Gibson 335 through a Mk I and got a similar exceptional tone even playing in smaller clubs. That reverb, dialed in properly is a one-of-a-kind tone to my ears. So, thanks again to all who reply to help my with my quest. (BTW, I never saw a snakeskin cover on Carlos' Mk 1's back then, always the cream tolex) I remember his Twins had the Tie dye grill cloth.
