thoughts
Major Flashbacks
When Yamaha recently re-issued the 1970’s era SG2000 as the SBG2000, I couldn’t help but think of Carlos Santana, and what to me was his golden era. In the 60’s and early 70’s Carlos mainly played SGs and Les Pauls. But in the 70’s he switched to a Yamaha SG200. This guitar remained his main axe until Paul Reed Smith coaxed him into playing PRS guitars, which have been his staple ever since. But to my ears, the SG2000/Mesa Boogie combo was the ultimate Santana tone.
In 1976 I was taking guitar lessons in Ann Arbor Michigan from Robert Richter, a jazz musician and guitar teacher who told me to get the Deluxe Santana Songbook. What he liked about the book was the guitar solos were written out — in standard music notation. Guitar TABs hadn’t been invented yet. The first song we learned was Samba Pa Ti. I thought, “this is good stuff” and started checking out more Santana music.
Now I had heard Black Magic Woman (a Pete Green/ Fleetwood Mac song) on the radio, but I didn’t realize how unique a player Carlos Santana was. About that time the classic double album Moonflower came out. When I heard the live version of Europa on that LP, Carlos Santana became my new guitar hero. I had never heard anyone play with that much emotion on guitar. Now there were literally tons of great players on the radio back then, but few could touch the soulfulness of Carlos. His notes just seemed to grab your emotions.
Don’t take my word for it. Buy the Moonflower
Here is a good one from 1976 showing Carlos playing his Yamaha SG2000. Enjoy.