Carlos Santana

Carlos Santana's tone is one of the most instantly recognizable in guitar history — a singing, sustained voice achieved through a Gibson Les Paul into a Mesa Boogie amplifier, a combination he helped pioneer. His relationship with Randall Smith at Mesa Engineering was so formative that Santana is credited with inspiring the development of the original Mesa Boogie Mark I amplifier. His later partnership with Paul Reed Smith produced the PRS Santana signature model, one of the most successful artist guitars ever made. From Woodstock in 1969 through Supernatural's multi-Grammy sweep in 1999, Santana's approach has remained remarkably consistent: maximum sustain, vocal-like note shaping, and a spiritual relationship with the instrument that treats tone as an extension of breath.