Tone Talk: Walking On The Moon

This page explores the iconic guitar tone on The Police's "Walking On The Moon", released on Reggatta De Blanc in 1979. Specifically the opening D minor 11th chords.

From what Andy recalls, it was a '63 (or '61) Fender Telecaster custom though a chorus pedal and a Fender Twin amp, with possibly a little bit of compression.

He suggested the chorus pedal was a Boss Chorus in other more recent interviews. However, earlier reports indicate he had an Electro-harmonix Electric Mistress flange pedal integrated into his pedalboard. The EHX was likely dialled to a chorus-like effect.

On the other hand, assistant engineer Chris Gray remembers the guitar sound in the intro was purely that of a SCAMP rack outboard unit (produced by Audio & Design Recording Ltd.) - specifically the S24 ADT delay/flanger module. Although Andy had his own effects pedalboard, Chris claims "no flange pedal ever gave the same glass-effect of the SCAMP".

In a 1979 interview with Sounds magazine, Andy was quoted as being rather impressed with rack-mounted AMS equipment in the studio, including their "superb" flanger. By 'expensive AMS equipment' he probably meant an AMS DMX 15-80 digital delay, which belonged to Surrey Sound studios and which Nigel occasionally used to enhance Andy's guitars. Andy's quote implies there was an AMS flanger around, but there is no evidence that Surrey Sound had such a unit at the time. Therefore it's likely he was instead referring to the SCAMP ADT flanger rack module but instead but mistook the brand as AMS.

Live, he reproduced the sound using the Electric Mistress pedal embedded in his Pete Cornish effects board with some enhancement from a volume pedal.