Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen
Santana · Abraxas · 1970
Santana cut Abraxas at Wally Heider's in April 1970 with almost nothing: a modified black Gibson SG Special with P-90s into modified Fender Twin Reverbs turned up to the point of natural breakup. For the solo, use the neck pickup, push the mids, and keep the gain at edge-of-crunch so single notes bloom and sustain instead of fuzzing out — the dynamics come from the guitar's volume knob and your vibrato, not from a pedal. Note that Mesa/Boogie's own history claims the modded Princeton prototype was on this record, while Santana credits the Twins.
Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record
Tuning
Standard tuning, no capo
Standard tuning at concert pitch; the solos sit in D minor, mostly D natural minor/Dorian around the 10th fret.
Guitar
- Gibson SG Special (black refinish, modified) · Gibson P-90 · neck pickup
Amp
Fender Twin Reverb (modified)
Vintage Guitar and Santana himself describe Abraxas as an SG into two modified Twins run wide open; a competing account from Mesa/Boogie literature and Randall Smith credits the hot-rodded Fender Princeton ('the first Boogie') with the album's sustain.
Amp
Fender Princeton (Randall Smith 'Boogie' mod)
Contested alternate rig: Mesa's own history says the cascaded-gain modded Princeton with a JBL 12 arrived in time for Abraxas, while Santana has said the first two albums were cut with Twins.
Tone character
singing sustain · forward mids · moderate tube breakup · warm neck-pickup thickness · light plate reverb
The notes are few and slow, but the whole part lives on wide finger vibrato, bends that have to land dead in tune, and volume-knob swells for the note entrances.
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