Santana - El Farol (cover; Epiphone Les Paul / Mesa Boogie Studio .22+)

New & improved take here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgXBLZRJmF4

Uploading a Santana cover again, after a long long time. It's got a couple of mistakes (especially in the outro solo) and I will upload a better version soon (I did 30+ takes of this one and just stopped trying to make everything sound perfect... but I'll have enough energy to do it some other time :D ).

Played on an Epiphone Les Paul w/ Ibanez Super 58 going into a Zingy Drive (handmade Zendrive clone; I set it quite low, just adding a dash of warm overdrive) and a T-Rex Replica for a very spacious delay and finally into a Mesa Boogie Studio .22+ with an Eminence Red Fang speaker (active EQ engaged, bumping mids and upper mids; on clean channel, gain on 6).

There's some slight clipping, I'll fix that when I upload the better version ;)

I found the backing track on the internet, available here:
http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com/play/santana,_carlos/el_farol.htm

You can find this great instrumental on Santana's Supernatural album.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Mesa
• Boogie
• Zendrive
• Carlos
• Santana
• El
• Farol
• Supernatural
• Replica
• TRex
• Epiphone
• Les
• Paul
• Super58
• Ibanez
• Studio
• .22+
• Instrumental
• Guitar
• Overdrive
• blues
• soul

[bigearss49]

Hi Leozingy,thank you very much for your information,but what do you mean by

DON'T OVERDO THE GAIN?(the Master?)

best regards

Sam

[leozingy]

@bigearss49 Don't turn the gain up too much, Santana's tone is not too overdriven (beginners usually make the mistake to turn the gain all the way up), it's the guitar and the power amp section that make it sound full, not the preamp gain saturation. So keep the preamp volume at 5-6 and turn up the master volume a bit more.

[bigearss49]

@bigearss49 Hello Leozingy,

Thank you for your response,I understand what you mean,Is the Eminence Red Fang more sounding in Mid tone,because the Black Widow original,I think is too sharp and too much high.Is this better with the Eminence?Oh and where did you buy the Zendrive copy pedal,what's the brand of it?

Please can you tell me?

Many thanks and regards Sambalito

[leozingy]

@bigearss49 The Red Fang is a lot better than the tinny and harsh Black Widow. Yes, the Eminence focused on the midrange and very smooth, the alnico adds nice compression at higher volumes. My "Zendrive" (named "Zingy Drive") is a handmade clone by a friend - the exact same circuitry, but with top quality parts; I also have an original Zendrive (from Hermida) on loan, but I actually prefer the clone.

[bigearss49]

Hello Leozingy,

Thanks for your advise,I'm going to change the speaker.

Would you be so kind to tell me how your settings are on the studio 22?

I have no equalizer.

Thank you

best regards

Sambalito

[leozingy]

@bigearss49 No problem, glad to help. I already have some tonal advice on my other video (alternate take of El Farol), but don't worry - once you make these changes (Red Fang speaker, EHX EL84 / JJ 12A7 tubes), the EQ doesn't matter that much. It sounds great at any settings. The starting point is everything at 7 and then turn according to taste. My settings are: bass 8, treble 8, mids 9, presence 10, reverb 5. volume 5-6, master 2. (don't overdo the gain, you have to let the guitar breathe).

[redwaldvillanueva]

great playing as usual my friend. thanks again for the setting info.

[bigearss49]

Hallo Leozingy,thank you for all your information and at first i'm going to modify the

Boogie.

I'll be back with you soon

best regards

Sambalito

[leozingy]

@bigearss49 All you need is - change the speaker to an Eminence Red Fang, use EHX EL84 tubes in the power amp section, JJ 12AX7 in the preamp section. That's it. It will make your amp sound better than anything you've ever heard. Engage the EQ and adjust a slight upper mid bump. If that's not enough "Santana" for you, use a Dumble-like pedal (Hermida Zendrive, Ethos Overdrive, Paul Cochran Timmy etc.). I get an amazing Santana tone live... the spekar sounds even more awesome once you turn it up.

[bigearss49]

Hi Leozingy,sounds really good and very close to the Carlos sound,I also own a Mesa studio 22+.would you please be so kind to tell me how you've adjusted your Amp,and what more gear?

Thank yoo best regards Sam