“It’s the preeminent instrument in the world. Every culture has made something of their own of it”: Andy Summers to explore the guitar’s impact on the world in globe-trotting docu-series

Andy Summer is set to launch a new globe-trotting docu-series all about the guitar. Across eight episodes, The Police guitar hero will travel far and wide as he discovers how different cultures embrace the instrument.

Titled Global Guitar, the series will focus on the impact both the acoustic and electric guitar have had on the world, as well as Summers’ interactions with different musicians united by their love of the humble stringed instrument.

Summers is co-producer on the show alongside High School Musical producer Bill Borden and Mark Dziak, who spearheaded the reality gameshow Race To The Center of the Earth.

“This comes from a deeply authentic and personal space – an extension of something I’ve been doing my entire adult life,” Summers explains. “I’ve always been interested in the music of other cultures, and the guitar in particular.

“It is absolutely the preeminent instrument in the world. Every culture has accessed it and made something of their own of it. It’s a very evolving instrument that just never seems to stop.”

“We believe in the project and in Andy’s authentic vision,” Borden adds. “This is a series that we feel needs to be made – something that has not made it to screen the way we are approaching it. We are confident it will find its way to interested audiences around the globe.”

The series is yet to find a home, with distributors Todd Barasch and Christina Calio due to pitch the Summers’ fronted series later this year. Filming is slated to begin in February and March next year.

It follows Gibson’s launching of Lost to the Future, a documentary charting the cultural impact of Back to the Future’s school dance scene, in which Marty McFly shreds a then-unreleased blues classic on an ES-345, which hasn’t been seen since filming wrapped. The firm's new venture, Gibson Films, launched last year with a Slash documentary.

In related news, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland are suing former bandmate Sting over royalty disputes concerning one of the Police's biggest hits. It's one that, two years earlier, Summers had perhaps controversially said “was going in the trash until I played on it.”