A well-used, late-’70s
Electric Mistress. Photo courtesy
of Alfi e’s Musical Instruments, Brighton, UK7. Andy Summers' Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress Flanger
One thing Andy Summers picked up during
his brief stint in 1968 with prog-rock
progenitors the Soft Machine came, ironically,
not from the band itself, but the act
they were touring with—the Jimi Hendrix
Experience. Put simply, Summers was
“enthralled,” and although he never cites
Hendrix as a direct influence, there’s a definite
sense of the shamanistic that permeates
the Brit guitarist’s work with the Police.
Summers onstage
in 1982. Photo by
Neil ZlozowerIt started with a Maestro Echoplex EP-3
he acquired in late ’78, just as the band’s
Outlandos d’Amour was leaking onto the
airwaves, and evolved into a deep fascination
with a wide range of phasers, flangers, and
guitar synthesizers. The Electro-Harmonix
Electric Mistress is probably the most recognizable
of anything in the Summers arsenal.
Incorporated into a pedalboard custom-designed
by effects legend Pete Cornish, the
unit gives “Walking on the Moon” its otherworldy
textural quality, and is one of the stars
of the band’s third album, Zenyattà Mondatta,
particularly on “Driven to Tears” and the
upbeat hit “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da.”