What am I hearing?

uncledick

I listened to Abraxas last night (always a joy) and there's a part of his guitar sound I just don't understand.  In the mids and upper mids it almost sounds like some sort of resonator, or even a banjo type tone.  You can hear it on lots of the 'great' tones such as Kossoff, Betts, Moore (PG's Les Paul) and so on.  Is this the wood I'm hearing or is it some kind of speaker distortion?  It doesn't really sound like it's a product of the electrics but you may know differently.  I've certainly never heard it live so is it in the recording technique?

richardhomer

Is it the second harmonic coming through as a note starts to feedback?

uncledick

richardhomer said:

Is it the second harmonic coming through as a note starts to feedback?

It's very much on the initial attack, rather than when the note 'blooms'  Listen to Samba Pa Ti from 2:10 on is a classic example.

Sassafras

It sounds like it could be a cocked wah sound on the album.
I actually prefer his live sound. It's much richer and fuller.

Skipped

Sassafras said:

It sounds like it could be a cocked wah sound on the album.
I actually prefer his live sound. It's much richer and fuller.

That is probably worth a Wisdom.
Gibson.com say that Samba Pa Ti is a wah cocked open.
http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/Carlos-Santana-Abraxas-201.aspx

The guitar could have been the sg special (P90s) that he used at Woodstock but he had another SG with humbuckers.

ultimatesantana say he used Fender Twins to record the first 2 albums...."turned all the way up". Huh?
http://www.ultimatesantana.com/Tone-Guitar-Amp-Gear.html
 

uncledick

I concur with the cocked wah thoughts in terms of the general eq.  I still can't fathom that resonance.  My gut feeling is that it's a speaker characteristic - in which case it must have been bloody loud in the studio.

Sassafras

Amazing, I got something right!
And I thought I had a tin ear, on both sides of my head.