I have the Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin album Love, Devotion, Surrenderand the licks McLaughlin plays on it are incredible! Does anyone know what scaled McLaughlin bases his playing on or know where I could find that information? Any help at all on learning some of his licks would be appreciated! Thanks.

what i would really like to know is what fuzz he is using (and with Mahavishnu as well) it sounds so emence and so clear at the same time.. is it a Fuzz face or something?

Most of McLaughlin's playing is modal. For example, take "Meeting of the Spirits", its the i-iv progression from a harmonized f# phrygian scale rocking back and forth between the two chords. He solos using f# phrygian, an obvious choice, and f# minor pentatonic--also obvious, but colors the improvisation using a b harmonic minor which works because of its relationship to b aeolian (the iv chord) with a leading tone for color. Nearly all of his tunes can be understood in this way, but for someone as harmonically aggressive as McLaughlin, there is a lot of danger in generalizations. Also, rhythmically, he basis the tunes on indian cyclical beat patterns and subdivisions. So "MotS" is a tune in 6/4 time but is 8th notes subdivided into a harmonic rhythm of 5+5+2 (= the 12 8th notes of 6/4).

As far as his sound, to me it sounds like a Gibson PAF though a germ fuzz into a Marshall EL34 style amp turned up VERY loud.

BTW, he will be putting out a 3-dvd instructional set in June (I think)

"a love supreme" is modal too. II-V chords (f#minor - B) he uses B-mixo.

John Coltrane the master of modal playing. If you havent heard it you owe it to yourself to check out the deluxe edition of A Love Supreme. a bit off topic, but still worth a mention.