Recent content by Rich Summoner

Is this still available I am interested in this bass. Please contact me if still available; [email protected]

There is a March 1979 performance on Youtube of One Block West, Kansas City, it is a vinyl rip. Same performance maybe? This one also has the bass quite out front , performance wise. Good show.

Hi all Sting gear hounds. I found evidence that the natural P bass did not become red right away, when Andy got his red Hamer. There has been some talk about it being painted red, at the same time they visited the Hamer factory, when Andy got the red Hamer guitar, as used on Don Kirschner's Rock...

Those Hamer basses are cool, I believe that the Cruise bass was not used a lot, maybe for 1 or 2 shows. And the 8 string Explorer style, I read somewhere Sting though it looked cool, but upon playing it for a show or 2 realized it was more cumbersome than the regular basses. It would be...

There are some Police songs that are very hard to play and sing. My vote is "When the world is running down..." Because the bass line is so syncopated, versus the vocal line, it is hard to keep them both going in their proper timing. Also, "Spirits in the Material World", reggae style bass line...

Cool, that Jazz was really the standard. I really only track his stuff to the end of The Police. I guess some videos show it being used on the Synchro tour. It was probably always with him, and he would use it when he felt like it. I have created a copy of it, mine is not as beat up, but...

Found an interesting photo in the book, The Police; a visual documentary. It shows Sting early on, with one of the jazz bands, either Newcastle Big Band, or Phoenix Jazzmen, with an Ibanez Ricky copy bass, natural. Interesting. I am sure he did not use this for long. I do know he got the old...

Yes 3 piece. We are recreating the later songs based on what there is live, mainly the versions that are from 2007/2008. The 1981 Ghost tour had the horn section, and 1982 and 1983 tours had the background singers, leaving the footwork for some synth stuff to Andy, on top of his parts. Both...

Good for you Sonicfrog. I am currently in a Police tribute band, and the hardest thing to find is a drummer who can play the Stewart Copeland parts, AND not be too busy to play. All the drummers we have tried out are either not good enough, or they are great, and already busy. We have a drummer...

Yes, Volker, I love all 3 of the first albums; all different in many ways, you can really see the time restraints and stresses they had or did not have on these. Outlandos is simply a recording of what they had been doing for a couple of years. Regatta was an upgrade in their sound, finally...

Thanks for the correction on the Ibanez, it is hard to find info on these, and Sting and Danny Q are not to forthcoming with info on his older gear. It would be great to have a page dedicated to the gear of The Police, for all 3 members, for gear geeks. I guess Sting was just experimenting with...

Yes, it seems he liked the old Jazz for most of the albums, although I am not sure if it was used on the Monserrat recordings. I did forget one other bass, a mid 1960's Precision, which was used on Ghost and probably on Synchronicity. It can be seen in Stewart's movie. This might have been the...

I think Sting was a bass player first, and developed his vocal ability. If you read his book, Broken Music, he talks about taking up the bass, and realizing how it contributes the the backbone of the song. As he played with various groups and then with Gerry in Last Exit, he realized he would...

Yes, I have done the live version of it with my Police tribute. It is tricky, but with any of this material, the drummer is the key. If it is not played as Stewart did, it becomes almost impossible.

Here are Sting`s basses with The Police, starting from just pre-Police: 1962 Jazz Bass, stripped and finished clear. This is likely the used bass he bought in Barratt`s store in Newcastle in the early 1970s, although in his book he claims this was a Precision. This bass was used on all the...