Every Breath You Take
The Police
A Bartók-inspired picked riff in wide stereo chorus over a sparse, pieced-together backing track.
What is the Every Breath You Take guitar tone?
The Every Breath You Take guitar tone is a Bartók-inspired picked riff in wide stereo chorus over a sparse, pieced-together backing track, heard on The Police's 1980s new wave recording. It is a clean riff tone, and The Police reportedly tracked it with Andy Summers' heavily modded early-1960s Telecaster, by Guitar Player's account, with a humbucker in the neck position, a switch that adds fuzz-like overdrive, a built-in preamp and an out-of-phase switch, although Wikipedia's account of the session has him playing the riff in one take on his 1961 Stratocaster, into the Roland JC-120 producer Hugh Padgham says Summers was using, a solid-state amp with one speaker dry and the other carrying its built-in chorus, each speaker close-miked with a Shure SM57 and panned left and right for a wide stereo sound, sometimes double-tracked with the sides swapped, with a Fender Twin Reverb for straighter, sharper sounds; Summers had worked up the riff while experimenting with Bartók violin duets around an album he was making with Robert Fripp, and when Sting told him to make the song his own he played it over a backing track of bass, drums and a single vocal at AIR Studios in Montserrat during the Synchronicity sessions; Sting's demo had no guitar, just a Hammond organ, and Stewart Copeland says the power chords in the chorus are about 20 tracks of guitar and calls it the most pieced-together song on the album; it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks in 1983. New wave guitar is mostly clean and bright, arpeggios and chord stabs with chorus or delay around them, so the amp's headroom and the modulation matter more than the gain.
You do not need that exact gear to land in the same place. What carries this sound is the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup choice and the order of the effects, and all four can be rebuilt on equipment that costs a fraction of the original. The numbers change from amp to amp, because a clean channel on a modelling combo and a small practice amp reach the same voicing from different knob positions. That translation is what Tonelify works out for the rig you actually own.
Every Breath You Take amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 2, Bass 4, Middle 6, Treble 7, Presence 6, Reverb 3, with the neck or middle position.
- Gain 2
- Bass 4
- Middle 6
- Treble 7
- Presence 6
- Reverb 3
- Signal chain
- Roland JC-120 chorus, one speaker dry and one chorused, panned apart
- The control that matters most
- Stereo chorus on a clean amp. Padgham miked the JC-120's dry speaker and its chorused speaker separately and panned them apart, so a stereo chorus, or a chorus pedal split to two amps, gets closer than one mono amp. Keep plenty of headroom and an even pick attack: the riff picks out each chord a note at a time, and any breakup blurs the notes together.
These positions are free and they are a starting point. A Katana, a Spark and a valve head reach this voicing from different knob positions, so Tonelify rewrites every value above for the amp and guitar you own. Your first match is free with an account, and needs no card.
Adapt these to my amp- Pickup
- Neck or middle position
These are positions on a generic five-knob amp with gain, bass, middle, treble and presence, each running 0 to 10. They are a starting point, not the settings used on the record, and they will not transfer unchanged to an amp with a different gain structure or EQ voicing. If you tell Tonelify which amp you own, it rewrites every value above for the controls that amp actually has.
What gear did The Police use on Every Breath You Take?
Andy Summers' heavily modded early-1960s Telecaster, by Guitar Player's account, with a humbucker in the neck position, a switch that adds fuzz-like overdrive, a built-in preamp and an out-of-phase switch, although Wikipedia's account of the session has him playing the riff in one take on his 1961 Stratocaster, into the Roland JC-120 producer Hugh Padgham says Summers was using, a solid-state amp with one speaker dry and the other carrying its built-in chorus, each speaker close-miked with a Shure SM57 and panned left and right for a wide stereo sound, sometimes double-tracked with the sides swapped, with a Fender Twin Reverb for straighter, sharper sounds; Summers had worked up the riff while experimenting with Bartók violin duets around an album he was making with Robert Fripp, and when Sting told him to make the song his own he played it over a backing track of bass, drums and a single vocal at AIR Studios in Montserrat during the Synchronicity sessions; Sting's demo had no guitar, just a Hammond organ, and Stewart Copeland says the power chords in the chorus are about 20 tracks of guitar and calls it the most pieced-together song on the album; it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks in 1983.
Sources: Mix: the Police's Every Breath You Take, with Hugh Padgham and Stewart Copeland, Guitar Player: Andy Summers on the Telecaster behind the Police's greatest hits, Guitar Player: Andy Summers on Every Breath You Take, Wikipedia: Every Breath You Take, Wikipedia: Andy Summers
Tonelify reads that chain and translates it to the amp and guitar you already own, returning gain, bass, mids, treble and presence values along with a pickup position.
How do you get the Every Breath You Take tone on your own amp?
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Every Breath You Take tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Every Breath You Take?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 2, Bass 4, Middle 6, Treble 7, Presence 6, Reverb 3, with the neck or middle position. These are positions on a generic five-knob amp with gain, bass, middle, treble and presence, each running 0 to 10. They are a starting point, not the settings used on the record, and they will not transfer unchanged to an amp with a different gain structure or EQ voicing. Tonelify rewrites the same values for the specific amp and guitar you own, because a high-gain head and a small solid-state combo reach the same Bartók-inspired picked riff in wide stereo chorus over a sparse, pieced-together backing track from different positions.
What is the most important control for the Every Breath You Take tone?
Stereo chorus on a clean amp. Padgham miked the JC-120's dry speaker and its chorused speaker separately and panned them apart, so a stereo chorus, or a chorus pedal split to two amps, gets closer than one mono amp. Keep plenty of headroom and an even pick attack: the riff picks out each chord a note at a time, and any breakup blurs the notes together.
Can you get the Every Breath You Take tone without the original gear?
Yes. The original was tracked with Andy Summers' heavily modded early-1960s Telecaster, by Guitar Player's account, with a humbucker in the neck position, a switch that adds fuzz-like overdrive, a built-in preamp and an out-of-phase switch, although Wikipedia's account of the session has him playing the riff in one take on his 1961 Stratocaster, into the Roland JC-120 producer Hugh Padgham says Summers was using, a solid-state amp with one speaker dry and the other carrying its built-in chorus, each speaker close-miked with a Shure SM57 and panned left and right for a wide stereo sound, sometimes double-tracked with the sides swapped, with a Fender Twin Reverb for straighter, sharper sounds; Summers had worked up the riff while experimenting with Bartók violin duets around an album he was making with Robert Fripp, and when Sting told him to make the song his own he played it over a backing track of bass, drums and a single vocal at AIR Studios in Montserrat during the Synchronicity sessions; Sting's demo had no guitar, just a Hammond organ, and Stewart Copeland says the power chords in the chorus are about 20 tracks of guitar and calls it the most pieced-together song on the album; it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks in 1983, but the parts that define the sound are the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup position and the effects order. Those translate to other equipment, which is what the adaptation step does.
Is Every Breath You Take a rhythm or a lead tone?
It is a riff part with a clean character, from The Police's 1980s new wave catalogue.
Does Tonelify cost anything to try?
Your first match for your own gear is free with an account, and needs no card. After that both plans start with a 7-day free trial: Stage is $6.99 a month for 20 matches, Headliner is $10.99 a month for unlimited matching within a fair use limit of 150 new matches a day, and yearly billing works out cheaper on both. Reading this page and the rest of the library costs nothing and needs no account.
