just wondering

[Vilches3]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JryQXilMj4

which pup would make an SG sound like this? 0_0

Santanas sounds like he's playing a screaming animal. i notice hes playing P90's.............so a mississipi queen?

thanks, just wonderinf

[hunter]

Yeah this is a great tone, isn't it?

Whenever you got it right, please let me know, I want it too!  8)

[Twinfan]

MQ's can be hot and fat, and so I don't think they'd be bright enough.

I reckon Riff Raffs could do that.......

[38thBeatle]

They are P90's by the looks of things.

[Vilches3]

yeah, i was just wondering which humbucker could get that holy grail woodstock monster tone. I was also thinking Riff Raffs or Stormy Mondays under more gain, if not a mississipi queen.

[Fikealox]

I used to have some Stormy Mondays in an SG-type guitar, and I really thought they were great pickups. They're a bit too polite and smooth in the mids to do Hendrix style madness, but I think they'd be able to do the tones in that Santana clip. I have only had very brief use of Riff Raffs, but they might be a safer bet to cover more ground (particularly on the ruder and brighter end of the spectrum).

Actually, honestly, I'd look at Abraxas for the tones in that clip.

[Vilches3]

I used to have some Stormy Mondays in an SG-type guitar, and I really thought they were great pickups. They're a bit too polite and smooth in the mids to do Hendrix style madness, but I think they'd be able to do the tones in that Santana clip. I have only had very brief use of Riff Raffs, but they might be a safer bet to cover more ground (particularly on the ruder and brighter end of the spectrum).

Actually, honestly, I'd look at Abraxas for the tones in that clip.

I didnt think abraxas because I remember a thread where Tim said medium output pickups don't really cut through the mix well in an SG

[Philly Q]

P-90s.  Just regular P-90s.

If your SG has humbuckers, then get MQs, or Manhattans if MQs are too hot.

Then you need his hands, his soul and his talent.

[Fikealox]

And his delicious, delicious brain...

[Vilches3]

and some tabs of LSD  :D

[Fourth Feline]

P-90s.  Just regular P-90s.

If your SG has humbuckers, then get MQs, or Manhattans if MQs are too hot.

Then you need his hands, his soul and his talent.

My sole concern about the advice given by the illustrious PhillyQ, is that the 'Manhattans' are really polite and acoustic sounding, with Alnico III magnets and a very conservative wind.  Yes, they do also sound very rich, woody, and plummy - but I cannot imagine them being used with overdrive / higher gain applications. To my ears, they really are a true 'Jazz' pickup ;  or in the neck position of a solid body guitar for clean chordal  work, and Ballad playing.  :)

(*Edit *)

I have just gone back and re-listened to the video, and tend to second Twinfan's recommendation for the Riff Raffs - as the tone in the video, has a real bite on the edge , yet his pickups master the gain well. The M.Q's ( as Twinfan also mentioned ) would be far too thick and fat sounding for that tone.

[Philly Q]

I was just going by the fact that we're looking at a video of Mr Santana playing an SG with P-90s.  Surely if you want that sound it's going to be P-90s.  End of.  I've never heard a humbucker that sounds like a P-90.

Now you may, quite rightly, point out that a sound similar to the one on the video can be achieved with a humbucker SG and the right amp.  Maybe even with a Les Paul and the right amp.  I don't know what amps Carlos Santana was using, but I'm 100% sure what pickups he was using.  So I'm sticking with P-90s. 

[Fourth Feline]

I was just going by the fact that we're looking at a video of Mr Santana playing an SG with P-90s.  Surely if you want that sound it's going to be P-90s.  End of.  I've never heard a humbucker that sounds like a P-90.

Now you may, quite rightly, point out that a sound similar to the one on the video can be achieved with a humbucker SG and the right amp.  Maybe even with a Les Paul and the right amp.  I don't know what amps Carlos Santana was using, but I'm 100% sure what pickups he was using.  So I'm sticking with P-90s.  

Quite right too Philly. :)

I was ( as you reminded me above )  thinking how I would go about replicating that tone with the materials 'on hand' in a humbucker sized B.K.P ;  as opposed to recommending a type of pickup ( i.e a 'pure ' B.K.P P90 ) that I have not knowingly heard in the flesh.  My point of reference ( subject to middle aged memory ) was the stuff I heard some time ago when perusing / listening to Twinfan's lovely collection of guitars and B.K.P  - ( which Thomas Cook now do as a weekend break ) .

Thank you for nudging me into a much needed clarification.  :)

[Philly Q]

I couldn't replicate anybody's tone even if they led me by the hand and let me use their actual gear.  So I'm going by all the visual clues I can find!  :D

[gwEm]

theres a shite load of bite isn't there! would go single coils.

some big guitar solo faces going on in that clip..