Tone Talk: Walking On The Moon

This page explores the origins and stories behind the rather iconic guitar tone on The Police's "Walking On The Moon", released on Reggatta De Blanc in 1979.

From what Andy seemed to recall, 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.

However, this recollection doesn't seem to be particularly reliable as reports from the time detail that he didn't specifically have a chorus pedal at the time - it was merely the Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress Flanger he was referring to, probably dialled to a chorus-like effect. He even suggested he had either that or a Boss chorus in The Police's early days, but there's no evidence of a Boss Chorus being used at the time.

Apparently, assistant engineer Chris Gray seems to remember it was a Audio & Design Recording SCAMP S24 ADT rack delay/flanger unit that produced the signature sound. While Andy had his effects pedalboard, Chris claimed that "no flange pedal ever gave the same glass-effect of the SCAMP" - either Andy had directly recorded with the unit or it was perhaps added in during the mix to further embellish the sound.

However, in a 1979 interview with Sounds magazine, Andy mentioned being rather impressed with using expensive AMS equipment in the studio including the flanger - probably referring to an AMS DMX 15-80 digital delay, which had harmonising and flanging capabilities, and belonged to Surrey Sound studios. It's possible that was used on the song.

For "Walking On The Moon", the chorus sound was mainly reproduced live with the Electro-harmonix.

It was from Zenyatta Mondatta onwards that Andy used Roland JC-120 and Roland JC-60 combo amps with built-in chorus - mainly as a studio amp. Live he replicated the chorus effects using the Roland SDD-320 Dimension D rack-mounted chorus unit, since he stuck to the Marshalls live.