Reggatta De Blanc equipment

**Reggatta De Blanc** is the second studio album released by The Police in October 1979. It was engineered (and co-produced) by Nigel Gray. Chris Gray and (probably) Martin Moss were assistant engineers on the album, but uncredited.

The Police started this album with many months of gigging behind their backs, and this album was where it all began to fall into place. They recorded the album in two stints: one in February 1979 and one in July-August 1979, and took about four weeks altogether. Sting wrote new songs like "Message In A Bottle" and "Walking On The Moon", but the band were incredibly short of material for the album. So bits of older songs were reworked - such as "The Bed's Too Big Without You" (originally a Last Exit tune) and "Bring On The Night" (originally derived from "Carrion Prince", another Last Exit tune). A couple of songs - "Deathwish" and "Reggatta De Blanc" - originated from jam sessions and are one of the very few songs to credit all three members of the band as songwriters.

*Reggatta* also has the greatest number of Stewart Copeland compositions on a Police album - normally one or two tunes, but four on this album. Two of these were going to be Klark Kent tunes, but were chosen for the album instead (as per The PoliceWiki): "On Any Other Day" and "It's Alright For You" . On those tracks, Stewart plays most of the instrumentation, except the guitar solo on "On Any Other Day" played by Andy. Guitars-wise, Stewart might have used a Gibson SG and/or a Fender Stratocaster, and basses-wise a 1968 Fender Telecaster bass - those were his typical go-to instruments for Klark Kent tunes during that period.

Sting also played the guitar solo on "Bring On The Night", as per The PoliceWiki. Probably with Andy's equipment.

One song, "No Time This Time", was originally recorded for **Outlandos D'Amour** and released as a B-side to "So Lonely" in 1978, but was included on the album owing to lack of material anyway.

## Sting

**Basses**:

* 1978 Fender Precision fretless
* 1979 Ibanez Musician MC-900DS

**Amplification**:

* Ampeg SVT amp head
* Ampeg SVT-810E cabinets (x2)
* Marshall bass amps

**Other**:

* 1978 Fender Stratocaster (black) (possibly) - guitar solo on "Bring On The Night"

## Andy Summers

**Guitars**:

* 1963 Fender Telecaster custom
* Hamer Sunburst Cherry
* 1956 Gibson Les Paul Junior ("It's Alright For You" slide guitar solo)
* Gibson Les Paul Custom
* Roland GS-500 guitar synth controller

**Effects**:

* Pete Cornish custom FX board

**Amplifiers**:

* Fender Twin Reverb - later replaced with Marshalls
* Marshall 100-watt amp heads
* Marshall 4x12 cabinets
* Music Man 212-HD 130-watt

**Miscellaneous**:

* Roland GR-500 guitar synthesizer ("Walking On The Moon" bubbling sounds)

## Stewart Copeland

**Drums** (TAMA Imperialstar Light Blue drum kit - replaced with a TAMA Imperialstar Jet Black kit for the Summer 1979 sessions):

* 22" x 14" bass drum
* 14" x 5" King Beat steel snare
* 12" x 7" rack tom
* 13" x 8" rack tom
* 16" x 15" floor tom

**Cymbals (Zildjian Hollow Logo A series and possibly Paiste 2002)**:

* 14" New Beat hi-hat
* 16" Thin Crash
* 18" Thin Crash (x2)
* 22" Ping Ride
* 8" splash

**Miscellaneous**:

* Roland RE-301 Chorus Echo
* Remo Rototom
* TAMA Octobans

## Studio equipment (Surrey Sound)

### Microphones

Drums

* Kick:
	+ AKG D-12 or Electrovoice RE20
* Snare:
	+ Neumann KM84 or Beyer
* Toms:
	+ Beyer M401 or Beyer 421(?)
* Hi-hat:
	+ AKG C451
* Overheads:
	+ AKG C451 (x2)

Guitars:

* Electrovoice RE-20 or Shure SM-58 (x2)
* Neumann U87 - placed 3 ft. away

Vocals:

* Neumann U87

**Outboard gear & effects**:

* Audio & Design (Recording) SCAMP units including:
	+ S24 ADT module
	+ other units to be determined
* AMS DMX 15-80 digital delay
* EMT 140 plate
* Rebis RA-402 Parametric EQ (vintage 70s model)

**Tape machines**:

* MCI JH-24 24-track 2"
* Studer 2-track
* Revox A77 Mk. III (x2) - used for delay on kick drum in "Walking On The Moon"

## References

* various photos
* Chris Gray (Surrey Sound studio equipment)
* The PoliceWiki
* *Beat Instrumental*, September 1979