Andy SummersPedalboard, 1979
Andy Summers built the guitar sound of the Police's Walking on the Moon from three pedals in 1979: an MXR Dyna Comp compressor, an Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress flanger and an Echoplex tape delay.
Walking on the Moon studio core path
Order evidence: No source publishes this sequence; the order is reconstructed
Inside the rig · 3 units
Pedal roles & evidence
How each unit fits Andy Summers's 1979 setup. Board-specific roles and the evidence behind each identification and position.
Reconstructed orderIdentity and position are evidenced separately. Reconstructed positions are not observed connections.
Dynamics
Dyna Comp
Front of amp
Role in this rig
Evens the attack and sustain before the modulation and tape echo.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Reconstructed
Modulation
Electric Mistress
Front of amp
Role in this rig
Creates the defining modulated color of the studio guitar part.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Reconstructed
Delay & Echo
Echoplex Tape Echo
Front of amp
Role in this rig
Turns played eighth notes into the repeated sixteenth-note figures Summers developed with The Police.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Reconstructed
Documented equipment · Reconstructed order · Serial path
Summers explicitly names the Dyna Comp, Electric Mistress and Echoplex as the effects he had for Walking on the Moon, and separately describes the Phase 90 and later Cornish board as different stages of his rig's evolution. The interviews do not give a jack-to-jack studio trace, so compressor, flanger and tape delay are shown in a conventional reconstructed order. This is a song-session core path, not an inventory of the larger 1979 Cornish touring board.
No source publishes this sequence. The units are ordered by conventional signal-chain practice, and any documented routing zone is kept as recorded.
Cited sources
MethodologyQuestions about Andy Summers's 1979 pedalboard
- What pedals did Andy Summers use in 1979?
- This dated entry lists 3 units: Dyna Comp, Electric Mistress, Echoplex Tape Echo. This is the recorded inventory, not a claim that every connection or model identification is confirmed; see the evidence and routing notes.
- What order were Andy Summers's pedals in?
- The complete order is reconstructed, not observed. The layout follows the cited routing constraints and the archive's signal-chain convention where the sources are silent: Guitar → Dyna Comp → Electric Mistress → Echoplex Tape Echo → amplifier.
- Is this Andy Summers's full guitar rig?
- No. This dated entry covers 3 units in the effects path, not every piece of gear Andy Summers owned or used. Floor pedals, rack units and routing devices are included only where recorded; omitted equipment and uncertain connections are explained in the notes. It is not a complete or current rig inventory.
- When and where was this pedalboard used?
- 1979. Regatta de Blanc sessions. This is the core signal path documented for that period, not a career-wide gear list.
- How does the archive know what was on this pedalboard?
- 2 cited sources, listed above with the date each was read, including Guitar Player, Guitar World. Among them an interview. The units are recorded as documented equipment, and the page was last audited on 2026-08-02.