Board Games
This issue’s query comes from a Police fan who’s trying to decipher Andy Summers’ signature tone
THE BACKGROUND
ARTHUR WHILE via email
For some reason, over Christmas I found myself listening to The Police. While doing so I fell down the rabbit hole of trying to nail Andy Summers’ guitar tone. What I don’t understand, however, is why perceived wisdom states he used a flanger to achieve a lot of his signature sounds and yet to me it sounds like a chorus. Am I missing something or is internet wisdom wrong – and why? Also, what modern pedals would you choose to emulate Andy Summers’ sound?
THE ANSWERS
Arthur, I can sympathise – I, too, have been obsessing about Andy Summers’ guitar sounds for the best part of two years now… You’re not alone in thinking Andy Summers used a chorus (on Walking On The Moon, for example), so take solace in that!
01 The best place to start when explaining how a chorus pedal and flanger are different is to describe how they are similar. Both are time-based modulation effects. What that means is that they both split the guitar signal into two then manipulate the ‘wet’ signal in both pitch and character. The modulated signal is then delayed and blended back in with the ‘dry’ signal. Chorus pedals typically have their wet signal delayed to a larger extent, but there is overlap in that the shorter chorus delay can overlap with flangers that have a longer delay. Where they differ is in the way the wet signal is manipulated.
Chorus pedals are designed to thicken your sound to give the impression that more than one guitar is playing. Flanger pedals give a sweeping sound as the delayed signal constructively and destructively interferes with itself creating a comb filter. This interference can be enhanced as more of the output signal is fed back to the input of the delay line.
Essentially, if the comb filtering of a flanger is set to subtle settings, it can sound very much like a chorus.
02 The person best suited to answering this question is Andy Summers himself… In lieu of his expertise, however, I shall try to answer myself. Andy Summers is known for using an Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress during his time in The Police. His settings were very subtle when you consider what the Electric Mistress is capable of. As a result of these settings, his guitar sounded extremely like a chorus pedal, but there is more of phase shift in the sound that isn’t achieved with a chorus. So if you use a chorus while emulating him, there is always a little something missing: ie, chorus is the 90 per cent solution; a flanger takes you to 100 per cent.
03 As for building a modern rig to emulate Andy Summers’ tone, there are four pedals that can get you in the right space: a compressor, a flanger, an overdrive and a tape delay pedal. My budget choices to investigate for this scenario would be an MXR Dyna Comp, an Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress (reissue), a Nobels ODR-1 and a TC Electronic Flashback Delay. For a no-holds-barred rig, I’d go for an Origin Cali76 compressor, ThorpyFX Camoflange, Effectrode Blackbird and Strymon Volante delay.
One last thing that’s worth mentioning here is that it will pay not to forget the sponge that Andy Summers apparently favoured underneath his strings to give a different tonality of muting versus palm mutes. Give it a try, it’s really good. Let us know how you get on!
THE QUESTIONS
1 WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A CHORUS PEDAL AND A FLANGER? 2 DID ANDY SUMMERS USE A CHORUS OR FLANGER DURING HIS TIME IN THE POLICE? 3 WHAT MODERN RIG WOULD YOU RECOMMEND TO ACHIEVE ANDY SUMMERS’ TONE?