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Every guitar has a story.

PRS

Santana

Paul Reed Smith kept building guitars for Carlos Santana until Santana called him a guitar maker.

1976. Paul Reed Smith is a young Maryland guitar builder who wants Carlos Santana to play one of his guitars. Santana is already a star, and he has just started with Yamaha. He says no. Smith keeps coming back, and the guitar that finally wins Santana over becomes the template for this one.

Introduced
1995
Type
Solidbody electric
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

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The short version

  1. 1976

    First no

    Smith meets Santana, who has just started with Yamaha. He isn’t interested.

  2. 1980

    The order

    Fall, Merriweather Post Pavilion. A maple-top is delivered in thirty days, that November.

  3. 1984

    The tremolo patent

    Santana asked for a vibrato that stayed in tune. Smith and John Mann patent one.

  4. 1987

    Blues for Salvador

    Santana records the title track on “one of my custom PRS models.”

  5. 1995

    The Santana Model

    The first formal PRS signature. The first 100 are signed and numbered.

  6. 1999

    Supernatural

    Santana’s modified signature, nicknamed Salmon, plays almost all of the album.

  7. 2001

    The SE

    A cheaper Santana, PRS’s first guitar made outside Maryland, for $738.

  8. 2017

    Santana Retro

    The signature returns to the core line, copied from a pre-factory guitar.

Side A

A1

The answer was no

Paul Reed Smith met Carlos Santana in 1976. Santana had just started playing Yamahas, and he said no.

There’s another version of that night, or maybe another night. In Washingtonian’s telling, it’s the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, on a bill with Return to Forever. Smith has the Frampton guitar with him. Al Di Meola orders one. Santana doesn’t.

Either way, Smith didn’t go home and give up. His next offer was the kind you make when you’re young and sure: the next guitar would cost $2,000 if Santana fell in love with it, and nothing if he didn’t.

Most famous signature guitars start with a star signing a contract. This one started with a young builder refusing to take no for an answer.

A2

Thirty days in 1980

The order finally came in the fall of 1980, at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Smith brought an all-mahogany prototype that night. Santana wanted maple on top, and picked it out of a scrapbook. Smith delivered the guitar in thirty days, in November 1980. It was only the third maple-top he’d ever made.

That still wasn’t the end of the audition. How many guitars it took depends on who you ask. One account says four before Santana would call him a real maker, and that the early ones were “accidents of God.” In a 2026 interview Smith says it took three years, and it was the fifth one that got the words he wanted:

OK, you’re a guitar maker.

A3

A tremolo that stayed in tune

Then Santana asked for something hard: a vibrato that stayed in tune and wasn’t a locking system. Smith said yes, hung up the phone, and realized he didn’t know how to build it yet.

He figured it out. A roller nut, locks on the tuners, knife edges, and the string ends seated right by the saddles. PRS patented the design in 1984, with John Mann. It’s a little funny, because Santana’s famous solos barely touch a whammy bar. The tremolo is on his signature guitar because he asked for it, not because you hear it all over the records.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • 30

    Days from order to delivery in 1980, for Smith’s third maple-top.

  • $2,000

    Smith’s offer for the next guitar, if Santana fell in love with it. Free if he didn’t.

  • 100

    Signed and numbered at the start of the 1995 run.

  • $738

    Retail for the 2001 SE Santana. The one a high-school player could buy.

Side B

B1

Blues for Salvador

By 1987 Santana was playing Smith’s guitars. He recorded “Blues for Salvador” on what he called “one of my custom PRS models.” That’s not the production guitar. There wasn’t one yet. It’s one of the customs the production model grew out of: his sound, on his guitar, eight years before anybody else could buy one.

B2

The Santana Model

In 1995 PRS finally put it in the catalog: the Carlos Santana Model, its first formal signature guitar. The support page says it “reproduces Santana’s original.” It had the older pre-’85 body shape, an eagle on the headstock, 24 frets, bird inlays, a shorter scale than the regular PRS, and paua shell around the edge of the top. The first 100 were signed and numbered.

That’s the whole design brief. Don’t invent a new guitar. Catalog the one he already played.

Santana kept playing modified versions. The one he calls Salmon was, in his words, “my Supernatural guitar,” on 99 percent of the 1999 album. Over the years the name split into a Santana II and a Santana III. In 2017 the signature came back to the core line as the Santana Retro, copied from a pre-factory guitar, down to the heel, the headstock, and the nut.

B3

For the kid in the back row

In 2001 PRS started its cheaper SE line, and the very first SE was a Santana. It was the first guitar PRS had built outside Maryland, and it retailed for $738. Santana said later that it took almost twenty years to get a guitar a high-school player could afford.

Santana took years to say yes to Paul Reed Smith. Then he spent almost as long asking for a version a high-school kid could buy. Smith had to earn his way to a Santana guitar. Santana made sure the next kid wouldn’t have to.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

  1. Carlos Santana · 1987

    Blues for Salvador

    Santana says he played it on “one of my custom PRS models,” years before the production signature existed. It’s one of the customs the 1995 guitar grew out of.

    Find it on YouTube

  2. Santana · 1999

    Supernatural

    Santana calls the guitar nicknamed Salmon “my Supernatural guitar,” used on 99 percent of the album. It’s a modified PRS signature. On the track with Eric Clapton, both are on Strats.

    Find it on YouTube

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 1980

    Carlos Santana

    Custom PRS, then his signatures

    Said no in 1976, ordered in 1980, and got the first formal PRS signature in 1995.

  • 1976

    Paul Reed Smith

    Builder

    Kept bringing guitars until Santana told him, “OK, you’re a guitar maker.”

  • 1970s

    Al Di Meola

    A Smith custom

    Ordered a guitar from Smith the night Santana didn’t.

  • 1984

    John Mann

    Tremolo co-designer

    On the 1984 patent for the vibrato Santana asked for.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

Eagle on the headstock, 24 frets, and a scale that is not the Custom’s 25 inches — PRS’s Santana, the production shape of the guitar Paul built for Carlos, not a Custom 24.

Body
Solidbody; maple top with violin carve; mahogany back. Optional 10-Top
Neck
Set one-piece mahogany; Santana Retro; 7/8" at the 1/2 fret, 31/32" at the 12 1/2; PRS double-acting truss rod; eagle headstock. January 2025 Core book: rosewood headstock veneer
Fingerboard
Rosewood, 10" radius, 24 frets, bird inlays, PRS jumbo (.110" crown, .055" height)
Scale
24.594"
Pickups
PRS Santana treble and bass humbuckers. Support pickup page: Alnico 4 treble, Alnico 2 bass
Hardware
PRS patented tremolo Gen III; Phase III locking tuners; nickel; Santana Om truss-rod cover. 10-Top: hybrid hardware
Electronics
Volume and tone; 3-way toggle
Finish
High-gloss nitro
Nut
PRS, 1 11/16"; body end 2 1/4"
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current US Core Santana Retro (PRS electrics page, fetched 23 September 2026). The classic is the 1995–98 Carlos Santana Model: PRS support prints 24 1/4", 11.5" radius, paua purfling, twin mini-switches, pre-’85 body and eagle headstock. SE Santana is the import — not this table. Mixed inch/mm flagged. A 2018 Retro card (Nico-Nico) prints nut 43.1 mm and neck depths 22.2 mm / 24.1 mm against a stated 24.5" scale. Do not average those with 1 11/16" or 7/8" / 31/32". Sweetwater’s current Retro copy still says 24.5"; the factory page says 24.594". Do not average. Guitar World (Burrluck, February 2020) on the SE Santana Singlecut Trem — a different SKU — prints 622 mm (24.5"), nut 42.83 mm, radius 254 mm (10"). Not this Core table.

Construction

The job was to catalog the guitar Carlos already played. Not a Custom 24 with a different truss-rod cover. Shorter scale. Pre-’85 outline. Eagle. Twenty-four frets stayed. The 25" Core did not.

Smith met him in 1976 (Guitar World, Gill). Santana had just started with Yamaha and said no. Washingtonian (November 2006) is another night: Capital Centre, Landover, billed with Return to Forever, Smith carrying the Frampton guitar. Di Meola ordered. Santana did not. Later the next one was $2,000 if he fell in love with it, and free if he didn’t. That is 1980s custom money.

The order is fall 1980. PRS’s archive post: Merriweather Post Pavilion. An all-mahogany prototype that night, maple chosen from a scrapbook, delivered in thirty days, November 1980 — Smith’s third maple-top. Gill: four guitars before Santana would call him a maker; the early ones were “accidents of God.” Smith to Gabe Dalporto (Guitar World, 6 January 2026): three years, and the fifth got “OK, you’re a guitar maker.” Keep four and five. Keep both rooms. Neither object is a 1995 serial.

He wanted a vibrato that stayed in tune and was not a locking system (Guitar Player, October 2020). Smith said yes, hung up, and did not yet know how. Roller nut, locks on the tuners, knife edges, ball ends near the saddles. Patent 1984, with John Mann (PRS 35th timeline; Gen I about 1985–1995). That is why this signature has a trem the famous solos barely use.

1995. PRS support, Burrluck’s list, and the page says it may not be perfect: Carlos Santana Model, 1995–1998. “Reproduces Santana’s original.” First 100 signed and numbered. Pre-’85 body and headstock, eagle, 24 1/4", 24 frets, 11.5" radius, birds, maple with paua purfling, Santana humbuckers, tone, twin mini-switches. MusicRadar: that outline was not a production guitar until 1995. Wikipedia: first formal signature that year. This plate starts there. The 1980 maple-top is the template. It is not the SKU.

Not this guitar. Custom 24 (prs-custom-24): 25", Pattern Thin on the current Core, usually a 5-way, post-1985 headstock. CE 24 (prs-ce-24): bolt-on maple. McCarty (prs-mccarty): 22 frets, stoptail, Ted’s name. “Santana plays PRS” is not “that one is a Custom.”

Then the name splits. Santana II (1999–2007): similar, but a 3-way, volume and tone, artist-grade woods, Brazilian board and headstock overlay, eagle. Santana III, same row: 2000–current, 24 1/2", 10" radius, East Indian rosewood, wide-fat, covered Santana pickups, tremolo, volume and tone. The January 2025 Core book lists Retro, not III. Keep both. Brazilian 2003: 200 guitars, 24.5", 11.5", Brazilian neck and board, Santana III pickups, 10-top, gold/nickel, numbered backplate. Roadhouse’s 1998 Brazilian-board Santana I prints 24.5" and 11.5" against support’s 24 1/4". One card. Not a factory revision.

SE is the other factory. PRS blog, 9 February 2026: the line opens 2001 on the SE Santana, first guitar outside Maryland, retail $738, headstock “Santana SE,” slash inlays, flat mahogany. Santana (Guitar World, 30 November 2021): almost twenty years to get a student guitar a high-school player could buy. Premier Guitar, carrying the 21 September 2010 release: first SE at 24.5" and on the American silhouette — 22-fret wide-fat, carved maple, flame veneer. Current SE page: 24.594", 24 frets, bevel, multi-ply neck, Wide Fat at 7/8" and 61/64" (the Retro is 31/32" at the 12th), Santana “S,” molded tremolo, gig bag. Burrluck’s 2020 singlecut SE is a third guitar.

The living Core is the Retro. Press, 18 November 2016: the 2017 Core brings the signature back as Santana Retro, until then Private Stock only. Deeper carve, original heel, original headstock and nut, taken off a pre-factory guitar. Support’s row says 2018–present, 24.5", 11" radius. Nico-Nico’s 2018 10-top prints 10", 24.5", neck Santana and bridge 58/15, plus the millimetres in the caption. One guitar. PRS demo, 16 January 2024: scale moves to 24.594" starting in 2024. That walkthrough also says a bound board, original purfling, and covered Santana treble and bass. The live table prints 24.594" and 10" and does not print “bound.” Don’t invent the change. Don’t average 24 1/4" / 24.5" / 24 1/2" / 24.594".

Alnico 4 treble and Alnico 2 bass is the current pair (support pickup page), which also says the pair has been through many iterations. A 58/15 bridge on one 2018 is not the 2026 voice.

Players

Woodstock, 16 August 1969, is a red Gibson SG Special (gibson-sg-special). The Yamaha SG-2000 years are yamaha-sg-2000. The rainbow L-6S ads are gibson-l-6s. The 1991 Tom Anderson is not a PRS. Custom 24, CE 24, and McCarty are other plates. The gold-leaf singlecuts are not this double-cut.

Carlos Santana. Gill, 2020: the first PRS “wasn’t called that yet,” and “this model later became the Santana I.” “Blues for Salvador” (Blues for Salvador, 1987) was “one of my custom PRS models.” The production model does not exist yet. A 1987 solo is not a 1995 serial.

Supernatural (1999). Guitar Player, August 1999, while the record was new: still the signature PRS; with Eric, both on Strats. Guitar World, Sharma, 3 September 2025: the one he calls Salmon is “my Supernatural guitar,” 99 percent of the album. Keep both. Premier’s Rig Rundown (Ed Adair, Ryman, 23 April 2014): Salmon and Son of Salmon, locking saddles Paul drew and they fitted to Salmon. Modified signatures. Not a stock Retro, and not pinned to a Santana I or II card. Premier’s 2012 Shape Shifter box lists a Santana II. That is the 2012 rig. Not a credit for “Smooth.”

The later stage guitar is a singlecut. Burrluck, 2020: off the old double-cut, onto a gold-leaf Singlecut. Guitar World, 30 November 2021: that gold singlecut is Blessings and Miracles; he could not name the pickups. Vintage Guitar (Adams, 2022): the same gold-leaf guitar for the whole record, in use nearly ten years. Premier, January 2022: Vegas on three custom singlecuts, two gold-leaf and a red flame; the double-cut in the photo is labeled the earlier one. Private Stock cousins. Not the Core Retro. Not a 1995.

Also known to play stays short. No second name forced onto a catalog Santana this pass.

Rarity

You can order a new Core Santana Retro. It is regular US production, not rare. SE volume is another factory and should not be used to judge Core scarcity. PRS does not publish annual Santana unit counts. None invented.

What is actually thinner: the first 100, signed and numbered (PRS support) — the opening of a 1995–98 run, not the whole run. Brazilian 2003: 200, numbered. Private Stock Retros before the 2017 Core (PRS press) — no factory count on that program here. Support still has Santana III as current; the 2025 book does not list it. Used market is leftover I / II / III guitars plus Retros from 2017 on. Don’t invent a produced total for any chapter. Pre-factory maple-tops and Salmon are one-off objects. They are not a vintage Santana.

Value

Informal estimate, 23 September 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask vs sold. Celebrity instruments are not comps. No invented medians or factory counts. The $2,000 custom deal (Washingtonian, 2006) and the 2001 SE retail of $738 (PRS blog) are period money. Guitar World, February 2020: Core Santana Retro “starts at $4,630”; SE singlecut $799. 2020 lists, not this street.

New street (US Core Santana Retro). Sweetwater, Santana Retro Orange, $5,040. Guitar Chalk’s vendor snapshot, 15 September 2026: Carroll Blue and Santana Yellow $5,040; 10-Top Orange $5,840. Sweetwater’s used-guide header lists a new 10-Top Santana Yellow at $5,840. Do not average a 10-Top with a standard top. SE Santana Yellow is not a Core comp: Sweetwater and zZounds $899; Guitar Chalk the same week $849. Do not average those two SE carts.

Used modern Core Retro. Reverb’s transaction history on Santana Signature Retro (the 2017–2023 guide; the dollar widget did not render on a direct fetch this pass): Excellent, 18 August 2026, $2,300; Excellent, 17 June 2026, $2,699; Mint, 2 December 2025, $3,800; Mint, 28 November 2025, $3,400; Excellent, 6 August 2025, $2,850; Excellent, 5 August 2025, $2,700; Excellent, 25 July 2025, $2,650. Named solds. Not a median computed here. Sweetwater’s Gear Exchange suggestion for a used 10-Top yellow is $3,796–$4,497 — a pricing-tool range, not those hammers. A 2024 yellow Excellent ask at $2,999 (Reverb, price-dropped from $3,200) is an ask. Don’t mix it into the sold list.

Vintage / 1995–98 / first 100. Thin public hammers this pass. Flag: thin sold-comp access. One named dealer sale, not a series: Roadhouse, a 1998 Santana I with a Brazilian board, signed headstock, $6,750 (page marked sold). Reverb’s 1995–98 guide did not print a dollar band on the fetch. Clean 2024–26 hammers for the signed first hundred were not extracted. Don’t invent one. Don’t use a six-year-old European ask, or a listing that says the guitar is a tribute and not a PRS.

Salmon, Son of Salmon, and the gold-leaf singlecut are his guitars. Not comps. A signed SE at Julien’s, 24 January 2020, $10,240, is a charity signature on an import. Not a Core Santana.

See also

  • prs-custom-24 — 25" Core, post-1985 headstock; this signature is the other scale and the pre-factory outline
  • yamaha-sg-2000 — the thick double-cut he played before the Maryland guitars
  • gibson-sg-special — Woodstock, 16 August 1969; pointed P-90 Special, not a PRS

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.