Black Magic Woman

What is the Black Magic Woman guitar tone?

The Black Magic Woman guitar tone is a sustaining, overdriven minor-key lead with bends and controlled feedback, heard on Santana's 1970s Latin rock recording. It is a distorted solo tone, and Santana reportedly tracked it with a 1968 Gibson Les Paul Custom, a refinished maple-top Les Paul that Guitar Player says Carlos Santana bought at Prune Music in San Francisco in 1970 to replace the red SG he had played at Woodstock, and the guitar it credits with the leads on Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen and nearly everything else on Abraxas; Vintage Guitar's Fretprints column on the album says instead that he used a minimal rig on the sessions, a Gibson SG and Fender Twin Reverbs, mostly a budget SG Special with P-90s, modified and repainted black, which with his modified Twins played at full volume gave the grittier sound of his early years, and Bonedo likewise says the first two albums were played through a Fender Twin Reverb turned all the way up, probably modified and fitted with Altec speakers; the same column hears his sustaining, overdriven tone in string bends, vibrato and controlled feedback over a minor-key groove, and quotes Santana saying he started to develop his sustain when he heard Peter Green's Supernatural with John Mayall; Gregg Rolie, who sings it, brought Green's song to a Fresno soundcheck, and the recording joins it to Gábor Szabó's 1966 instrumental Gypsy Queen, whose intro of hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides opens the track; Wikipedia puts it in D minor, moving between the Dorian and Aeolian modes over a Dm7, Am7 and Gm7 pattern, with congas, timbales, organ and piano giving it what it calls a voodoo feel; Abraxas was recorded at Wally Heider's studios from 17 April to 2 May 1970 with Fred Catero, and the song, its first single, reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1971, Santana's highest there until Smooth. Latin rock leads sit over organ and a full percussion section, so they need sustain and a strong midrange more than raw gain, with the notes held long enough to sing.

You do not need that exact gear to land in the same place. What carries this sound is the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup choice and the order of the effects, and all four can be rebuilt on equipment that costs a fraction of the original. The numbers change from amp to amp, because a high-gain head and a small practice amp reach the same voicing from different knob positions. That translation is what Tonelify works out for the rig you actually own.

What gear did Santana use on Black Magic Woman?

A 1968 Gibson Les Paul Custom, a refinished maple-top Les Paul that Guitar Player says Carlos Santana bought at Prune Music in San Francisco in 1970 to replace the red SG he had played at Woodstock, and the guitar it credits with the leads on Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen and nearly everything else on Abraxas; Vintage Guitar's Fretprints column on the album says instead that he used a minimal rig on the sessions, a Gibson SG and Fender Twin Reverbs, mostly a budget SG Special with P-90s, modified and repainted black, which with his modified Twins played at full volume gave the grittier sound of his early years, and Bonedo likewise says the first two albums were played through a Fender Twin Reverb turned all the way up, probably modified and fitted with Altec speakers; the same column hears his sustaining, overdriven tone in string bends, vibrato and controlled feedback over a minor-key groove, and quotes Santana saying he started to develop his sustain when he heard Peter Green's Supernatural with John Mayall; Gregg Rolie, who sings it, brought Green's song to a Fresno soundcheck, and the recording joins it to Gábor Szabó's 1966 instrumental Gypsy Queen, whose intro of hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides opens the track; Wikipedia puts it in D minor, moving between the Dorian and Aeolian modes over a Dm7, Am7 and Gm7 pattern, with congas, timbales, organ and piano giving it what it calls a voodoo feel; Abraxas was recorded at Wally Heider's studios from 17 April to 2 May 1970 with Fred Catero, and the song, its first single, reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1971, Santana's highest there until Smooth.

Sources: Guitar Player: inside the tone of Carlos Santana's 1968 Gibson Les Paul Custom, Vintage Guitar: Fretprints, Santana's Abraxas, Bonedo: Santana's Samba Pa Ti workshop, Wikipedia: Black Magic Woman

Tonelify's tone matcher reads that chain and translates it to the amp and guitar you already own, returning gain, bass, mids, treble and presence values along with a pickup position.