Moog Minimoog Model D

The **Minimoog Model D** is a monophonic synthesizer. Both Sting and Andy Summers had each owned Minimoogs, and used them primarily for live and demoing purposes during the early 80s.

## Sting's Minimoog

Sting was the first member of the band to use a Minimoog.
According to The PoliceWiki: during a US tour, Sting had seen Jeff Boynton of Wazmo Nariz (one of The Police's support acts) use a Minimoog and was apparently impressed with it that he decided to get his own and try it out (with Boynton's assistance) on soundcheck ahead of the show at Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium in Santa Cruz, USA on 19 May 1979.
Photos seem to suggest, however, that earliest known live appearance of Sting's Minimoog was on 3 February 1980 at PNE Garden Auditorium in Canada.

Live, Sting occasionally played a few notes on the Minimoog during the setlist, whenever his bass parts allowed him to. Such as during "Walking On The Moon" and the intro of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" (which used the Moog Taurus I pedals), respectively.

Little is known about its studio use, but Minimoog was most likely used for the prominent synth bassline in "Contact" from the *Reggatta De Blanc* album. He had the Minimoog at his disposal for ***Zenyatta Mondatta*** and ***Ghost In The Machine***, but the extent to which he used it on either album is unclear. There have been ssome speculation that the intro to "Don't Stand So Close To Me" was played on the Minimoog rather than the Taurus, but it could be either.

Sting later replaced it with the polyphonic Oberheim OB-Xa for the ***Ghost In The Machine*** tour.

**References**

* Various photos
* The PoliceWiki

## Andy Summers' Minimoog

The Minimoog had accompanied Andy Summers onstage on several Police tours. With the exception of the summer 1982 leg of the *Ghost In The Machine* tour, when he tried out the Prophet-5. Like Sting, he'd slot in playing a few notes on the Minimoog during a setlist whenever his guitar parts allowed him to, such as in between playing the Dmin11 chords during "Walking On The Moon".

Besides being used onstage, the Minimoog was also a part of his writing/demoing rig at his Ireland home in the early 80s.

Various studio photos show Andy had the Minimoog with him during recording of ***Zenyatta Mondatta*** and ***Ghost In The Machine***. But the extent to which he played the Minimoog on either album is unclear; Andy seemed to prefer recording with polyphonic synths like the Roland SH-2 and Prophet-5. It is possible that the Minimoog came in handy when rehearsing in the studio.

There have been suggestions that the Minimoog was used for the solo on "Spirits In The Material World", rather than a Prophet-5 as Andy recalled in the September 1982 issue of *Guitar Player* magazine. Partly because there also happened to be a Prophet-10 during the sessions, and for some it didn't make sense to have both a Prophet-5 and Prophet-10 at the same time. And partly because the video shows Sting banging the solo away on a Minimoog. But whatever equipment is seen in music videos doesn't necessarily mean it's the same equipment used on the studio recording. And in response to both there being a Prophet-5 and Prophet-10, the band had their own preferences when it came to whatever they used - e.g. Sting had an Oberheim OB-Xa while Stewart used the Roland RS-505 Paraphonic synth for studio work. The Prophet-5 would have been Andy's own at least, while the Prophet-10 Sting used was either borrowed/rented or it belonged to the studio.

**References**

* Guitar World, May 1981
* Various photos, including Didi Zill photos