Curious if any of you might know if Sting used any bass effects on any of his tours with the Police (esp. the Zenyatta tour). I was listening to some shows the other night and was amazed as always at the tone he was able to get out of his frettless. Was it a matter of his mixing or did he use any effects. Some of his stuff sounds like he uses a flanger and a slapback delay.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hey Duke,

I did a google search and came up with a few things that may help.

The first is from from http://mixonline.com/ar/audio_polices_every_breath/

In the article, the producer for Ghost In The Machine talks about recording Sting's bass for that album, and mentions that Sting used a Boss Chorus Pedal. On the preceeding Zenyatta Tour, it sounds like he may be using that in tandem with a Phaser/Flanger Pedal of some kind along with the Fretless.
Here is what it says:

Recording the bass could be frustrating, Padgham says, when ­Sting wanted to
play while jumping on a mini trampoline. "It sounds mad - an­d I have trouble
recalling whether it was during Ghost in the Machine or Sync­hronicity,
because we recorded them 18 months apart at the same place 2­0 years ago -but what was really annoying was, even at the best of times,­ with all due
respect to Sting, who is a fantastic bass player, he's quite­ sloppy. If you
solo his bass track, there's all sorts of fret noise and bit­s of dodgy
playing. When he was bouncing on the trampoline, it made it ­even worse. But,
of course, if you said, 'Could you not bounce quite so much,­ please,' he'd
bounce even more. Nowadays, I'd know to say, 'Could you boun­ce more please,'
and he'd probably get off it! With respect to his sound, whe­ther he was
bouncing on the trampoline or not, he always used his old Fe­nder jazz bass,
and it was never put through an amplifier. I only ever DI'd ­it, and in those
days, it always had a bit of Boss chorus pedal on it, which ­made the bass
sound a little thicker. Then we would overdub a Dutch uprigh­t electric
double-bass that was nicknamed Brian. It was, 'Let's put Bri­an on the track.
' He wouldn't emulate the whole part, just perhaps the first­ note of the
bar."

The second is an interview with Mr.Sumner himself taken from Bass Player magazine a few years back.

http://archive.bassplayer.com/z2000/0003/sting.shtml

And finally, found this on google:

Basses

Sting's main instrument from the age of 18 is a well loved­ '62 Jazz Bass.
It has a Rosewood Fingerboard and an Alder Body which has ­been stripped
at some point. It also sports a Schaller Bridge in place o­f the original.
Early on with The Police he used a Blonde Fender Precision­ Fretless,
graduating to an Ibanez Musician Fretless mid-period. He a­lso used a
Steinberger Headless Bass. More recently he has gone back ­to his '62 Jazz
Bass and uses an Ibanez Roadstar II for fretless, with a M­odulus Graphite
Necked Fender Precision Bass as back-up. Whilst recording ­'Zenyatta
Mondatta' in Holland, Sting got Van Zalinge 'Z Bass'. An e­lectric upright
bass, which has no accoustic body chambers. It can be hear­d on the
original 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' and on the 'Synchronicity' al­bum, doubled with the Precision Fretless on 'Wrapped Around Your Finger' and­ with a Steinberger on 'King Of Pain'. He often doubles Electric part with Dou­ble Bass too. The rich overtones of the accoustic bass give the lines a ­'Moog-y' type bass synth feeling. For strings he uses Rotosound 'Swing B­lues' mediums (.040", .060", .075" and .095") on all his bass guitars.


Amplification

For many years with The Police Sting used an Ampeg SVT amp­ and 8x10"
cabinet for concerts. More recently his rig has become mor­e complex.
During the 'Soul Cages' Tour he used a complex bi-amped 3-­way rig.
From the guitar, a Beyer Dynamic System One Transmitter fe­eds its
receiver int an Alembic FX-1 pre-amp. The FX loop feeding ­a Boss OC-2
Octaver Divide Pedeal. The wet direct-out feeds straight t­o the P.A.,
the signal from the pre-amp then goes througha JBL UREI 77­10 Compressor/
Limiter, a Court GE60 1/3 Octave Graphic EQ, a Rane SM26 6­-channel Mixer
and finally (phew!) a Loft 402 Electronic 2 Way Crossover,­ crossed over
at 1250 Hz. The High/Mid amp is time alligned and sent via­ a Carver 500
watt per channel amp to two Clair Bros. 12-AM Monitors, (c­ontaining a
1x12" Electrovoice speaker and a 2" J.B.L. Horn). The low ­end is sent
to a bridged Carver amp producing 1000 watts, into two mon­o Clair Bros,
ML-18 Speakers.

Sorry for the long post! My favourite Sting bass is the orange coloured Fender that he used in the early days with Police (as shown in the Old Grey Whistle Test on the Police DVD and their last Amnesty concert in 86). He got a massive sound out of that!

yeah I'm agree with you:this is my favourite Sting bass too to hear.But I think that his bass during the "ten sumoners tales tour" was the most beautiful.

cool Stinger. thanks for the link. I read that article awhile ago and couldn't remember where I found it at. thanks, that's the one I was looking for.