Carlos Santana

At 1:24 in this performance of Santana at Woodstock, Carlos Santana's Gibson SG Special can be seen.

In this photo, Santana can be seen playing the Fender Stratocaster in sunburst finish.

First pictures of this guitar date back to the recording of the first album in May 1969, and they are pretty solid proof that Santana used the guitar to record some of the stuff on the first album – if not all. At that time the guitar was finished in TV yellow, and featured two P90 pickups as well as the Maestro tremolo.

By December 1969 when Santana played at Altamont, the guitar was almost completely stripped down of it’s 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.

Carlos played this guitar during the Woodstock gig in August 1969. It featured cherry red finish, brazilian rosewood fingerboard, two P90 single-coil pickups, Grover tuners, ABR-1 Tune-o-matic bridge and a wrap-around stop-tailpiece. 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.

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

In this Blues for Salvador performance from Japan in 1991, Carlos Santana is seen playing a Yamaha Pacifica 1421 in a blue finish.

During 1970's, the Gibson L6S appeared on the market and Santana became an instant user and lover of it. According to this advert, he called it "his rainbow". This advert is from 1974, and some say he may have recorded "Borboletta" with this guitar.

Carlos Santana can be seen using the Yamaha SG 175B in many videos in the late 1970s like this version of "Revelations" (1977): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyxnqfxinzU

He gave Yamaha some advice as they were building the Yamaha SG-2000 as stated here: https://www.yamaha.com/en/about/innovation/collection/detail/3029/

He never played an SG-2000 per say. He played the SG-175B "Buddha SG" which was some sort of a precursor to the SG-2000.

Santana also uses a classical guitar, the Alvarez Yairi CY127CE with Alvarez tension nylon strings.

In this rig rundown, at the 0:44 minute mark, Carlos Santana's guitar tech confirms he uses PRS Santana II.

The tone of Carlos Santana's Yamaha SG guitar can be heard on a number of landmark recordings, one of the most notable being 1977's Moonflower. From that record came the studio version of "She's Not There," along with live versions of "Dance Sister Dance (Baila Mi Hermana)," "Let the Children Play / Jugando," and "Europa," all of which blew away the previously released studio versions. Some of Santana's straight-ahead rock hits, like "Open Invitation" and "All I Ever Wanted" were also recorded on the SG2000.

Carlos continued to use the Yamaha until the early '80s, both in concert and on albums including Inner Secrets, Marathon, Zebop!, and Shango. By 1982 he had migrated totally to Paul Reed Smith guitars, which he continues to play to this day. However, his years' playing the Yamaha SG guitar were pivotal in his development of the smooth, round, endlessly sustaining tone which has become his trademark.

Carlos Santana is known to use the PRS Santana I, as evidenced by an image on Instrumania.

The Yamaha SG2000 was used by Carlos Santana in the early stages of his career.

1961 Gibson Les Paul/SG owned, played and signed by Carlos Santana. The Instrument comes in a original "Gibson Artist Paisley" case, which were introduced in about 1973. They were very expensive, so there a not many of these cases around. The guitar is in remarkable fine condition for its 52 (!) years of age, with no cracks or repairs or refinishing to any part of the body. Everything is stock original, except the sideways Vibrola has been replaced with a regular stop/tailpiece, the frets have been refretted and the pots have been changed in 1975 (CTS 137 75 22). There comes a picture of Carlos Santana holding the guitar and a Letter of Authenticity from Santanas personal Assistant, assuring, that this guitar has been owned, played and signed by Carlos Santana.

Carlos Santana is seen playing a Takamine EG522C Acoustic Nylon Guitar in the music video for "The Game of Love," featuring Michelle Branch, available on SantanaVEVO's YouTube channel.

Music video by Santana performing Winning. (C) 1980 Sony Music Entertainment (Rare use of a Fender Tele by Santana)

Carlos Santana is seen playing the custom made Alembic guitar with Eric Clapton on August 15, 1975. More details on the Club Alembic forum: https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=25529.0 - https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=8400.0

Carlos Santana is featured playing a PRS Santana MD-10 in several music videos.

This Gibson Les Paul Standard was most notably used during the early 70's. Santana performed on 1971 Montreux Festival with this guitar.

Carlos Santana uses the PRS Santana 25th Anniversary guitar, as evidenced by a user-uploaded photo on Musicradar.

This custom green PRS signature guitar of Carlos Santana is also used for live work.

In the official music video for "Maria Maria" by Santana, Carlos Santana is seen playing the Giannini CDR-PRO Violao Electro-Acustico Nylon guitar.

As stated on page 87 of the March 1980 issue of International Musician and Recording World, Ronnie Montrose sold the Esquire he used on Open Fire to Santana in early 1980.

"On my solo LP I just used a little amp and a fuzz (tone). The main instrument I used was a Fender Esquire that I just sold to Carlos Santana." Montrose shrugs his shoulders. "I'm not into flash," he emphasizes.

In a YouTube video titled "Santana - The Healer/Saja Live In Berlin 1987" by EpicConcerts, Carlos Santana is seen playing the Roland G-707 synth guitar at 1:55 during a performance of The Healer. This concert took place on April 6, 1987, at the Palast der Republik in East Berlin, and was broadcast by DDR2.

Carlos Santana uses the PRS Santana Signature Retro 10-Top guitar, as evident in the official music video for "The Game Of Love" featuring Michelle Branch, available on the SantanaVEVO YouTube channel.

In the music video for "Just Feel Better" from the "All That I Am" album, Carlos Santana is seen using a PRS Santana Retro guitar, as evidenced by the image available on Equipboard.

This has been Santana’s main acoustic guitar for the past several years.