How can I get Santana guitar tone?

Hey everybody i'm tryin to get that thick santana guitar tone. Think black magic woman or samba pa ti. I have an epiphone les paul special II, Line 6 spider III 15w, digitech rp90 guitar pedal, and a boss dynadrive distortion pedal. Exact Eq tweaks and effects would be great. Thanks for any help.|||You need Carlos' hands!





Carlos could pick up your guitar, make you cry with his awesome tone, then hand it off to you and it will sound like ***.





Anyways, Carlos has used the Mesa Boogies for years. They're a key part to his sound... mainly because of their very robust EQ sections on BOTH sides of the gain stage. Just experiment. Listen to how various effects change the tone and slowly try to craft a similar one. That's how you learn. Every guitarist worth their salt has spent hours tweaking things to find a good sound. Now it's your turn.





I will give you a tip though: Carlos usually plays with his guitar volume very low. When you're using a tube amp, if you set it just right, you can turn the guitar's volume knob into a distortion control. Crank the volume up a little, push the amp a bit harder, more distortion. You're not using a tube amp, so this won't work, but keep it in mind.





He also uses the volume control to increase his sustain. As the note starts to die out, he slowly creeps the volume up so that it stays constant. It's a sneaky trick, but it sounds amazing.|||Trust me, Lucas is right. I have a high dollar Boogie and PRS and I sound nothing like Carlos and couldn't no matter how hard I tried. People just don't understand how much of a person's tone is in their fingers.