Samba Pa Ti Amp

[Hatman777]

Hello all was wondering if any have tried or used any amp in the helix which is best suited for a Santana Samba Pa Ti ?
 

thanks for the Input 

[rvroberts]

I can get a very similar sound out of a number of the amps.  This is because this type of sound is as much about how you play the amp as it is about that amp itself.

Take a small fender say and turn it up maybe almost full. (the Stoneage - which is actually an old Gibson I think - works too)

Regularly that also meant turning all the tones up full too - use some common sense here - but you need to push the amp into more gain than you need.

Then back off your guitar volume knob till you have the lower drive and clarity you hear here.  The amp needs to have lots of gain in reserve.

Use the bridge pickup on a humbucking guitar and turn the tone down till you still have enough top, but a more mellow overall tone.

Now you will be in the ballpark.

Santana is riding his volume knob for both clarity, sustain and subtleness.

So he's playing the amp as much as the guitar.

Believe he used SG's around then.  

The story is it's a Twin Reverb - but probably modified. (people recorded with bigger amps then to get extra sustain and controlled feedback)

The Twin model in the Helix has way too much headroom for this type of sound - as do most twins - but something tweed should be OK.

There is a certain hollowness in there - that might be about the speaker and micing too.

One of his SG's had P90s.............that might make that difference.

An EQ after the amp should let you tweak to a very close match - obviously a little reverb after all that too.

Here he is doing it recently - a bit different - but using the same tricks.  You'll notice his volume on the guitar is so low he actually sometimes is pretty much off!

 

[Hatman777]

Thanks will Def try that out  :) 

[Schmalle]

This video Thomas Blug shares his take on several approaches on how to get the Santana tone:

 

[rvroberts]

Upon second listening - I've realised the "hollow" sound is a half cocked Wah - it's just sitting about the middle.

You will need to fiddle around with position  - don't know what model to use - but I'm pretty sure what's the hollow EQ.

[rvroberts]

That's the original record sound - not the one in the clip - no Wah there - just tone knob!

[Hatman777]

YEs i did Put a Wah ! half cocked at the beginning of the chain And Twin Reverb works very nice 

[cbeattyjr]

That's one of my favorite guitar performances of all time.  They were pretty young when they laid it down!