PW_Guitarist

I picked up one of these on a bit of a whim and was happy with the decision. Here is a detailed review I posted in another forum, prices in Canadian dollars. _________________________________________ Buckle up, this is a long one... Believe it or not, I initially didn't really want to buy this guitar (yeah, we all said that before). Despite being an unabashed fanboi, I wouldn't go buy any guitar just because it has Lifeson's name on it. I passed on the initial Epiphone Axcess in Viceroy Brown despite it's great $1199 price point and features, because I think putting a Floyd Rose on a Les Paul (even an Epiphone) should be some sort of punishable offense, and also because I did not like having to put a battery in it for the piezo (we use old-school walk-up acoustics on stage). The deciding factor was the fact that the run was so limited and discontinued so quickly, it was almost impossible to get one, which drove the used market on these at an overpriced premium. Hard pass for me. Now Epiphone came back with a similarly-inspired model, but with upgraded Custom cosmetic features. No batteries or piezo, same pickups but gold hardware and Floyd-branded trem, Custom binding on body and neck, "Ebony" fretboard with block inlays, a gorgeous ruby red finish and a real solid hardshell case, at a higher price point than the original offering ($1849) but still thousands under the price of a real Gibson. I saw the specs along with some review videos, and given that there was one available in my neck of the woods, I decided to take the plunge. It usually takes me months to make a final verdict on a guitar (after several rehearsals and hopefully a few shows) but I thought I would share my initial impressions, which are actually quite good. Fit and Finish: The instrument is made in China but inspected and setup in the US. Epiphone has come a long way in my view. The only other Epiphone I have to compare is a 1997 Doubleneck from the Unsung factory in Korea. Fit and finish are outstanding. I have not played a lot of Epiphones but this one feels like it is at the top of the heap. I am a sucker for a guitar with good looks, and this one delivers. Setup was a bit high and was done for 10-46, which is the standard these days. I'm leaving it as is for now but will eventually go to 9-42s. Body and neck Fretboard is a bit of a disappointment as it says "Ebony" but does not look or feel like real ebony to me. It does have a darker, smooth and tight grain but not comparable to the grade of ebony you see on a real custom. Is this what they call Richlite? Not sure. Frets are medium jumbo so they felt smaller than what I am used to but they play fine. Top is a veneer and it does feel thinner than and actual Gibson LP top - you can see the difference at the neck joint (kind of like the lower carved top on PRS SE and S2 compared to Core models). Hardware and electronics Bridge is Probucker 3 at 8.60K, and neck is Ceramic Pro at 12.56K, both coil tapped, plus a phase switch on the bridge push/pull tone pot. These pickups have strong output and they sound great when they are distorted. They have a pretty good high-end response, which is indicative of Lifeson's preferred tone selections. Unlike my doubleneck, I would not bother changing the stock pickups on this guitar, they are fine as they are. There was a bit of sticky gunk leftover from the clear protection sticker on the neck pickup, I had to rub that out. Tremolo is legit Floyd Rose branded, not a licensed or the Graph Tech version in the original piezo model. Grover tuning heads are another nice upgrade. Knobs have that edged grip that makes pulling up easier than on a standard "witch hat" knob, but still I prefer a standard speed knob with a recess on the top, like PRS does. The pure white switch tip matching the binding is a nice touch. Comfort and playability I don't have a scale to accurately weigh it, but it feels heavy, around 9 pounds, about the same as my 73 Deluxe and lighter than a true Custom. The Axcess cut neck is really neat for upper-fret access, and the belly carve is a welcome feature for most middle-aged players. Neck carve is comfortable, feels thicker than my Deluxes but not as thick as my SG special. It is very comfortable guitar to play (for a LP). The sustain is impressive for a Floyd-Rose equipped guitar. I have one of the Signature super-strats that Lifeson used in the 80's, and I hate it - it is a complete sustain killer and I had to have the Floyd blocked to make it playable. This Epiphone has rehabilitated the Floyd Rose in my eyes in that it is not a sustain killer. This is a fun and resonant guitar to play, with a Floyd (and the usual challenges that this entails). One thing I don't like about Floyd's is they make bending harder since it tends to drag down the tremolo, and these are 10-46 strings. I'll see how it goes when I go to 9-42. Price and value: The price point is not as advantageous for this one as on the original Viceroy Brown issue, at an added $650 for cosmetic upgrades and no piezo, which was fine by me since I never liked piezo. Obviously the higher price point will improve availability, there are still plenty of these available. The original was probably set at too low a price point for all its features, which drove demand and used prices up. This one may actually help drive the prices and demand for the original model back down for those who prefer the original piezo model, but I am happy with this upgraded model. Verdict: I need a lot more playing time on this guitar to make up my mind. I'll use it at the next rehearsal to run through the set and see how it does. I am still not sure if I would use it live against my personal favourite 1992 PRS CE24 workhorse. However, this is a beautiful and fun guitar to play and even if I don't end up using it live, it (so far) feels like a keeper. Lots of tonal possibilities in this, even without the piezo. The key driver making this a keeper is that it is the only floating Floyd-equipped guitar I ever had that I really enjoy playing - it has really changed my views on putting a Floyd on a Les Paul. I don't use the trem on the PRS because it does not stay in tune (despite PRS claims to the contrary), but this offers all the advantages of the Floyd with the tonal capabilities of the LP. Epiphone seems to have gotten this one right.

DW has a self-contained unit: https://www.long-mcquade.com/176244/Drums/Hardware/Drum-Workshop/2000-Series-Tambourine-Pedal.htm If you already have the tambourine and/or pedal, all you need is the Gajate bracket: https://www.lpmusic.com/products/hardware/mounts-and-brackets/pro-gajate-bracket The high-impact plastic frame tambourine should be able to take the abuse of a bass drum pedal beater. I would not recommend using a wooden tambourine with a pedal.

I knew someone who had the unthinkable luxury of having TWO video recorder machines back in 1984, so I rented the VHS and had him dub me 2 copies (one for safety). Pretty much worn out the first one going back and forth learning songs. One of the drummers that played in my band was at that show, he said they had a bit of a humorous train wreck during YYZ and they probably could not fix it with audio from another show since it was too obvious on video. As for the footage for the remainder of the show, I think we are out of luck., They searched for that years ago and couldn't find any. I think it was shot in 35mm and whatever was not used ended up swept away from the cutting room floor. Anthem have been surprisingly quiet about a 40th anniversary package of their best selling album and first video concert... I expect they are working on something but I would not expect any new unearthed footage...

Zildjian used to have samples of all the crotale notes on their website (unfortunately, that seems to be gone now). You could "ding" you your heart's content with the click of a mouse. I played that along to the tracks and it seemed to confirm the high E. You can still buy single notes new for about $125 apiece, but I had lucked out on a used one on eBay for $75. Back in the alt.music.rush days, when it was fashionable to have a Neil Peart quote in your signature, I remember one guy had "Ding!" as his quote. A lot of people didn't get the joke. :)

This has been an ongoing discussion and I'm not sure there is an official consensus since the ear is a very subjective thing. I have the high E and I personally think it's the right one, but most seem to disagree. On the MP/ESL tour, he was using it for the Hemispheres "ding" and the intro to YYZ. The pitch is more important to the song in Hemispheres as it is in the middle of a musical melody, rather than just in the intro on YYZ. The Hemispheres studio recording was definitely an E, so I believe that's what he chose to put next to the hi-hat. On the MP studio version, the YYZ crotale sounds more like a D# to me. I know the first 2 guitar notes are C and F#, but I don't think the crotale matches either one. That's just what I hear, but many hear it differently. So if you hear the High E, well, we are in agreement! :)

I was shocked at the impact this had - on myself, on my circle, and in the world in general. People at work came up to me and offered condolences. It made headlines on all mainstream media. As a fan for nearly 40 years, I felt like I lost someone I knew personally even though I had never met the man. It comes down to the impact his life had on so many others - not just on the musical world, where his influence was greatest, but his accomplishments as a person, his intelligence, his integrity. He was just such a well-rounded human being, a shining example and inspiration in all spheres of life. I was reminded of something someone wrote about Frank Zappa's passing in 1993, along the lines of "Damn. The world needs Frank Zappa." Well, I guess the world needed Neil Peart too, now more than ever. Somedays it feels like there are too many lights going out in the world, and we never really imagined a world without The Professor.

I was getting in my car, leaving work after a particularly busy Friday. I usually follow the news religiously at work but was too busy that day - probably a good thing, I would not want to find that out while in public. I turned the radio on and they were playing "Ghost of a Chance", which is not uncommon. At the end the DJ came on and repeated the news. My first reaction was disbelief, after all the endless fake reports of "Neil has cancer" from the 80's and 90's, and the fact that our DJ is a crank - he once played "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" 15 times in a row just to piss off his boss. I turned to the CBC afternoon show and when I heard "Bytor and the Snow Dog" playing, I knew it was real - they NEVER play Rush. I drove home in shock, constantly reminding not to run a red light or forget to pick up my kid at school. They played Rush all night and all weekend. It was a bit like when we lost Gord, but in that case it was very public and expected. This was a total shock, but I was somewhat relieved that it was kept out of the media till 3 days later, the way Neil wanted it.

So far, we've done the Hemispheres and Moving Pictures albums in their entirety at shows. I have suggested Permanent Waves since we are only short "Different Strings", but so far, no dice... A trio cannot be a democracy, it has to be unanimity - that's how Rush outlasted The Police :):):).

BLASTPHEMY HERESY (lol geddit like the song) I used to think the same thing... 20 years ago I was in a band that only wanted to do classics and I insisted on doing songs from every album, to the point where it became a major sore point. I later formed a band that agreed to do the newer stuff, but even I was eventually forced to admit that stuff we did like Open Secrets, Alien Shore or Secret Touch never went over as well as Jacob's Ladder, Camera Eye or Circumstances. Maybe it's a regional thing, or maybe times have changed... Let's face it, everything before Vapor Trails is now considered classic stuff. It is extremely difficult to predict what audiences will like. You get a feel for it by playing a lot of different shows for different crowds, and the numbers don't lie... The biggest turnout we got in the last 5 years was for a re-creation of the Moving Pictures tour.

I don't know how the live music scene is in Florida, but up here we always run into the same problem: bars want us to play late (up till 2:00 closing), but Rush fans are an older and earlier crowd. We typically do 2-1/2 hours of music in two long sets rather than three shorter ones (to avoid the between-set exodus). The first set is usually longer with the big radio hits for casual fans, and the second has more deep cuts the die-hard fans won't mind waiting around for. You have strong openers/closers for both sets, and your selection is a great mix. I would not change it - don't worry about the post-Signal stuff, it never goes over as well as the classics. I'd add the new songs in the first set since they are bigger radio hits. I'd organize the set as such: Set 1 Spirit of Radio Subdivisions Limelight Distant Early Warning Dreamline Entre Nous* New World Man YYZ Broon’s Bain* The Trees* Xanadu** Set2 R30 Medley Analog Kid Freewill Jacob’s Ladder Camera Eye* Red Barchetta Closer to the Heart* Overture/Temples Tom Sawyer (Encore) La Villa Strangiato

I'll be wearing earplugs for the first time this tour, and I wish I started earlier. I started developing tinnitus and it was enough to convince me. It's still very minor and intermittent, but I don't want it to get worse, so it was earplugs or no show. It's worth investing in some good, flat-response musician's plugs, they cut the volume without affecting the EQ or the mix, and you can actually make out elements in the music that just got obliterated before. I even started wearing in-ear monitors on stage myself and I wish I had started that earlier as well. I have an old pair of Sonic II's I've been using at rehearsals for years and they are really good. I'll probably test-run a few different pairs at the show. Trust me, there is no such thing as "tough ears", it will catch up to you at some point.

I'm not sure how it works in the US but I believe it is a system similar to Canada. You don't need Rush's permission to play their songs anymore than a radio station does. Tariffs are established by whatever royalty governing body there is (SOCAN in Canada, ASCAP in US) and a percentage of revenue is paid and re-distributed to the original musicians via SOCAN or ASCAP. Bands are paid by the venue for their services and venues are supposed to pay 3% of what they pay the musicians to SOCAN (that's the tariff for live performance in Canada).

Congratulations on making the top 3 Kenny, that is no small feat. All bands were great and the bar is raised higher every year. Lotus Land won in 2012, they are awesome. If memory serves me correctly, the bass player for The Rush Tribute Project was the bass player for the winning band (and Music Events Coordinator) at RushCon 1. You guys did a great job coming up alongside past winners! Looking good for next year...

I thought "Contents Under Pressure" offered more interesting and insightful information than "Chemistry", which seemed more like a re-hashing of known facts. Between the two, I'd pick Contents, it seemed like it was better researched and went in more detail. In defence of Visions though, it was the only bio available for many years, and long before all this info became common knowledge on the Internet. I first read Visions when it came out and it was an eye-opener at the time, though I couldn't figure out if it was Rush's bio or Banasievic's. :) But, if you read everything on the Internet, there's not a lot of books out there that will offer much more new and untold information.

This is a valid question, and though I know the concert was filmed live from a few friends that were there, I can see how someone might have doubts. 1 - The show is tightly framed because they did not have the small and discreet technology they have today to take a million angles. There were a few large cameras on dollies. 2 - No, the songs are not in order of the original Moving Pictures set, so continuity errors are possible. It's even possible they used filler shots from other nights, they did that on Show of Hands. 3 - Not sure why the show is not complete, but I do know they had a massive train wreck in YYZ where even the video would have been unusable. It is well documented that the audio was doctored and overdubbed to fix some flubs. Listen to the Tom Sawyer drum fills on the original VHS and on the DVD - they are different. I think the video was produced with the best technological means available at the time, and Rush being perfectionists, it's not impossible some audio and video flubs were edited. I have the full LA boot from that tour and there's a lot of flubs here and there, and a lot of things that can go wrong when you're filming.

Robert Telleria's book "Merely Players" is probably the best attempt to catalogue all the band's instruments up to the mid-90's, even if it may contain a few inaccuracies. There also the more recent companion book to "Taking Center Stage" by Joe Bergamini which contains great pictures and diagrams of all Neil's kits with great accuracy. All his past kits' whereabouts are pretty well documented on the Internet, but the Japan kit remains a bit of a mystery because it really was just a loaner kit for a few shows, and is generally believed to be owned by an anonymous private collector in Japan. Given that as far as I know, it was stock and did not have the same customizations as the main kit, and Neil never actually gave it away, so it would be difficult to trace authenticity or chain of ownership for anyone claiming to have it.

I'd say "Lay off them Red Apples or else we'll never see R50." That is all.

Glad I checked here and everybody has the same experience. I never dealt wth Music Today and am still waiting for my Montreal tickets. Last time I did a presale, they came right away, but it wasn't through MT.

I was once in an original prog band signed to 10T Records (one of my compositions made their album) and I also play in a Rush tribute band, so I was curious about this and listened to the whole album. This is not bad, but the major problem I have is with copying titles or chunks of lyrics almost verbatim, as well as signature riffs and song structures. I think that there have been successful music plagiarism lawsuits with less similarities. However, I don't think any of this would ever become big enough hits to warrant a lawsuit, and based on my own experience with 10T Records, there wouldn't be any profits to collect anyway. Kudos to these guys for writing their own music, and it's really great that they are influenced by Rush, but they should really try to write and sound more original. I write my own original music, and I am always glad when people tell me, almost surprised: "Wow, it doesn't sound anything like Rush!" That's the whole point - it's not supposed to.

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but looks like Neil's red Tama kit from 82-86 is going up for auction again. Anybody care to guess how much it will go for this time? I'd say no less than $35K. Gather up your pennies... https://www.julienslive.com/view-auctions/c...d/72/lot/28533/

Every year, the RRHOF has this Corporate Battle of the Bands event in October. My work band (classic rock covers) participated 2 years ago and made it to the finals. We joked about doing a Rush tune but I don't think we could have pulled it off. As a lark, I thought sending in a submission this year from my Rush tribute band, given that we actually qualify, since half the band (including the singer) work at the same place... That would be so funny, playing 3 Rush songs back-to-back in the RRHOF. However, not sure their employer would be willing to pay the $10 000 entry fee for the finals.

I basically wrote them off in 1997 - I thought "there's no way they are ever going to come back from that!" Yet they did, and as far as I am concerned, everything they did after that was gravy. When I first heard "One Little Victory", I thought "They're baaa-aack!", but the rest of the album was a bit of a disappointment for me. I bought it and went to the shows anyway and had a great time as I did 20 years before. When "Far Cry" came out, I thought "Now they're REALLY back!" but the rest of the album was a bit of a let-down. I still bought it, still went to the shows and still had a great time as I did 25 years before. Now, "Caravan" and "BU2B" really sound great to me, and with the news that this is sort of a "concept" album, I can't help but think "This time they are back for real!" I'll buy the albums, I'll go to the shows and I will have a great time, just as I did 30 years ago. One day, they will not be around anymore, and maybe then they will get the recognition they deserve, and those of us lucky enough to have seen them will remember. Those who don't like the newer material will always have "Moving Pictures", and I guess you can never take that away!

Today is Rush Day. If the Groundhog sees his shadow, it's only 6 more weeks till Clockwork Angels!

That is actually a very interesting question. I always thought the first synths (a set of Moog Taurus Pedals and a MiniMoog) were introduced during the recording of AFTK in June 1977, but according to "Merely Players", they were actually brought on-stage after ATWAS was released and before AFTK was recorded, so sometime between September 1976 and June 1977. They don't appear on ATWAS, but in theory they should appear on bootlegs from after ATWAS and before AFTK, none of which I ever heard. SOo I guess that tends to confirm what is in Robert Telleria's book.

Just thought I'd mention this as it always strikes me as funny how Rush really seems to infiltrate the mainstream these days. At the Blue Man Group show, they have these 3 gigantic "GiPad" visuals, one of which flashes comic summaries of classic works from Shakespeare to Melville to Mark Twain. For Tom Sawyer, the synopsis went something like this: "Boy floats in a raft up the Mississippi river to Canada, join rock band Rush and writes songs about Ayn Rand novels". Pretty funny. On a side node, the show was very good, it would be particularly appreciated by percussionists, light technicians and visual artists. I can see from the musicianship in the show that these guys are no strangers to Neil.