Carlos Santana

[StephenR]

I recently came across a couple of photos of Carlos Santana playing 73-28, jamming with Eric Clapton at The Forum in L.A. on August 15, 1975. They were on tour together with Carlos opening and then sitting in at the end of most of the Clapton sets. The show at The Forum is particularly well-known because Keith Moon and Joe Cocker came out along with Carlos for the last three songs of Clapton's set. As far as I can tell Keith did not play drums just maracas. The show was taped from second row center by Mike Millard and copies of his recording were co-opted and sold on CD by various bootleggers over the years. Mike passed away a while back and his mother held on to all of his master recordings before finally letting one of Mike's friends who she trusted have them. The quality of Mike's recordings are legendary among those who traded tapes. A new transfer was made of the Clapton Forum show and this is the first time there has been a direct copy of the master being circlulated. It surfaced on a couple of taper forums where it is being shared for free. Included was a folder of photos taken by Mike's friend Jim R who accompanied him to the show. Before seeing Jim's photos I was unaware that Carlos ever played an Alembic guitar so I did a quick search of the club forum and found the following old thread about it from ten years ago...

http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=8400.0

I wanted to share the newly found photos with the club but wasn't sure about bumping a ten-year old thread so I reached out to David Houck for advice and he suggested starting a new thread in "Artists and Their Alembics" with a link to the old one.

The live shot of Carlos and Eric in the ten-year old thread was probably also taken on 8/15/75 at The Forum. I found the same photo being used on the cover of a recording of the 8/3/75 Pacific Coliseum show in Vancouver. It is possible Carlos and Eric wore the same shirts in Vancouver but I am guessing the photo is from 8/15.

On to the "new" photos. I got in touch with the photographer Jim R. through the guy who made the new transfer of the recording available and he gave his permission for me to share these here. He is also going to look through the rest of his photos from that night and if he finds any more that show the guitar will let me know.

If you would like to hear Carlos' guitar the new transfer of the Forum show is on youtube, Carlos plays on Teach Me to Be Your Woman, Badge and Eyesight to the Blind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCfFXSZMHGQ

Hoping this new thread can be updated if more information about 73-28 is discovered. There was already a spin-off thread about the modifications done to the guitar since Carlos owned it, please keep this thread focused on the guitar as originally built.

[lbpesq]

The guitar looks like it still has the Alembic electronics in the second pic.  The pics in the linked thread show it after extensive modification with passive humbuckers and a Fender-type tremolo bridge.  What a shame.

Bill, tgo

[dela217]

I just find it a little odd.   If it really was 73-28, wouldn't it be fitted with PF-5 electronics?     Wouldn't the battery compartment be between the two pickups?   I am guessing the instrument is a '74 or '75.   What do I know.
Michael

[edwardofhuncote]

Looking at the older thread on #73-28, you've been wondering about this mystery for a while dela217. 

I'm curious too. Just speculation, but maybe it began in '73, and wasn't completed until after PF-5 was phased out. The serial number in the end of the fingerboard could be because of the scroll-cut headstock. I can imagine a couple hard strikes of a hammer on a number die snapping that right off. (having repaired a couple mandolin headstock scrolls...) Talk about an awww, *&^%$#@! moment.

*the USA after the serial number makes me wonder if this wasn't added later too. 

[rv_bass]

To add to the mystery, a bass has recently surfaced with 73-28 stamped on the headstock…my guess is that Santana’s guitar is not 73-28 (looks more like it was stamped 78-28 to me), or there are duplicate serial numbers for the guitar and bass. Also notice that the 3 in the bass serial number is angular and not so for the guitar, so I think that the guitar is stamped 78-28. And were they doing elbow contours and body accent laminates in 1973? And the stamped USA is more fitting for the late 70s onward. Yet the body shape (not horns) and maple remind me of John Dawson’s guitar, but that one had PF5. Maybe Santana’s guitar was originally 73-23…speculate away!

Although the body shape, omega points, and neck woods all reference an earlier guitar.  Maybe the modifications were done in 1978 and stamped as that year, although not sure why it has 28 in the number unless it is a duplicate, an error, or not referring to the sequence.

[rv_bass]

Looks like they were doing elbow contours and body accent laminates early on, so who knows…

[edwardofhuncote]

That stamped number on that bass is bona-fide. I still think the number stamped on the end of the fingerboard of the Santana guitar is an after-the-fact detail. That's not to say I think it's illegitimate; I just think the original serial number was either obscured by a refinish, lost, and/or forgotten. I also think it's possible, given the scroll headstock, that the number wasn't stamped up there at all. And it very well may be a duplicate issued number too. There are few things about that guitar that cast doubt on it being a '73 completion... though I would absolutely buy that it did start then... no reason to think otherwise. That guitar was a 'seat-of-the-pants' build right there, and I can just imagine the back and forth conversations while it was in construction. I bet it took a while. Photographic evidence suggests he had it by '75, and that doesn't seem like an unbelievable timeframe. 


LSB #73-28 by contrast, is a much more standard 1973 Alembic. (if there was such a thing yet) When I first saw it, I went a little bit crazy trying to pin down what number it was by process of elimination, just knowing most of the other 1973 numbers.


So there's my guess. Anyway, easy to see how a bass might have flown from the Chicken Barn sooner, with the number stamped in it that may have been destined for Carlos' very custom guitar here. It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, ever turns up.