Will the synth era ever be respected?

[condemned2bfree]

10 hours ago, treeduck said:

Yeah he started using it around 1985 and it first appeared on the Atavachron album in 1986. He used it on all his albums after that actually, even when it was discontinued although he didn't take it on tour anymore because he had no one to fix it when it broke down, which it often did.

 

Holdsworth was always ahead of the game when it came to guitar tech; he was one of the first players to use Charvel guitars, the first to use an Ibanez super-strat, one of the first to use a steinberger, one of the first to use a baritone guitar and one of the first to use a synthaxe. 

 

[TheAnarchist2112]

14 hours ago, zepphead said:

Did Allan Holdsworth use this bad boy on a couple of albums?

I remember Jonathan Cain used a similar thing on the Raised on Radio tour for Journey in the late 80's

[rugen]

I always thought that the last good album of Rush was Hold Your Fire. Is it a coincidence that this album marks the time when they eliminated the use of keys? You tell me…

[Alex’s Amazing Arpeggios]

4 hours ago, rugen said:

I always thought that the last good album of Rush was Hold Your Fire. Is it a coincidence that this album marks the time when they eliminated the use of keys? You tell me…

I respect your opinion, but I personally believe peak Rush is 2112 thru to Power Windows .. HYF was the first album I was disappointed with.. Presto was even worse.. Roll the Bones a very minor improvement.. Counterparts was a much needed return to their ballsy Hard Rock roots whilst taking in some current 90s influences. So I find CP, even the much maligned TFE , S&A and CA ..ALL way better than HYF 

[Alex’s Amazing Arpeggios]

On 4/21/2026 at 8:28 PM, zepphead said:

It seems to me like there is nothing wrong if you want to 

a) favor the heavier, longer Rush songs from the '70s  or

b) favor the more synth based Rush songs  of the 80's.

What is not good is those who regard the a) team as beer swilling, metal morons or the b) team as new wave pop loving namby pambies.

We are on this forum together, still talk about the band and still get excited about the up and coming tour.  Just embrace the entire life cycle of the band!!!!

[treeduck]

16 hours ago, condemned2bfree said:

Think it was a Baritone on Zarabeth. Yeah Synthaxe notoriously broke down, should have left it at the side of the road.

Yeah he started using them around the time he recorded Wardenclyffe Tower, although he still used the Steinbergers as well on that one.

[treeduck]

15 hours ago, condemned2bfree said:

 

Here's a good page for info on Holdsworth's equipment throughout his career:

 

https://equipboard.com/pros/allan-holdsworth

 

And here's a Buckethead one for comparison:

 

https://equipboard.com/pros/buckethead

[treeduck]

15 hours ago, condemned2bfree said:

 

And here is Buckethead's real face from his school yearbook 1985 when he was 16 years old.

 

[WY Man]

The synth era of RUSH is easily my favorite era. But my favorite songs on any given day are 'Natural Science,' 'Xanadu', and 'Jacob's Ladder' which Geddy defines as "a song rarely played" on the R-40 tour.

[blueschica]

3 hours ago, treeduck said:

And here is Buckethead's real face from his school yearbook 1985 when he was 16 years old.

 

Seriously? He looks kinda like Ed Sheeran? 

[treeduck]

2 minutes ago, blueschica said:

Seriously? He looks kinda like Ed Sheeran? 

Yeah that's him, there's another pic from 1988 in Guitar Player's new talent column and another on the front of his pike #13 album, which appears to be from the 80s as well. There's no pictures of him after 1988 though.

 

 

[condemned2bfree]

3 hours ago, blueschica said:

Seriously? He looks kinda like Ed Sheeran? 

The wrong guy got the bucket.

[zepphead]

9 hours ago, blueschica said:

Seriously? He looks kinda like Ed Sheeran? 

Probably best sticking with the bucket!

[laughedatbytime]

1 hour ago, zepphead said:

Probably best sticking with the bucket!

You need more than just a bucket, that doesn't even block any of the sound.

[ytserush]

On 4/21/2026 at 12:38 AM, fraroc said:

To the synth era fans of this board, you all know he feeling...You meet someone in your day-to-day life, it could either be a friend or a co-worker or someone you meet who you find out is supposedly a big Rush fan, and you get all excited to finally to be able to gush about how much you love them to someone else, only for them to basically be like (read this in the most obnoxious dudebro voice possible)"Yeah bro Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures is awesome but Signals f***ing sucked and then they became a pussy-ass gay new wave band. They didn't become REAL Rush again until Counterparts, dude. Except Nobody's Hero that song sucks cuz its gay" Meanwhile two of your favorite albums of all time is Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows. 

You'd think that this is an exaggeration, but you'd be surprised how much of a popular sentiment it still is to absolutley shit on this era of Rush, hell one of the reasons why I really don't like most of the Rush documentaries is that pretty much every guest musican that supposedly "loves" Rush comes to this bullshit consensus that the entire Signals-to-HYF era was a blemish on their legacy. Yet when you actually listen to Signals, GUP, and Power Windows, there's seriously not a bad song on ANY of those records. In fact Tai Shan is probably the only "bad" song on any album from that era, and that's honestly the "least bad" of all the bad Rush songs. I get that everybody has different tastes but there comes a time where it honestly feels like you're living in some kind of twilight zone (pun half intended) where good is bad and bad is good.

Not really something I concern myself with

[New_World_Man]

It does seem like a lot of fans (including Mike Portnoy apparently) jumped ship after Moving Picture or Signals. Rush were a pretty heavy band up until Signals and when they de-emphasized the heaviness that either confused a lot of people or made them want to listen to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest instead (not that there's anything wrong either of those). 

Edited April 27 by New_World_Man

[New_World_Man]

9 minutes ago, New_World_Man said:

When exactly is the synth era? They started using synths in the 70s but probably not in a major way until AFTK. So my guess would be 77 to 87. I think by Presto they started to emphasize the synths less than before.

 

I guess this is probably wrong actually. I suppose from 2112 / AFTK up to MP is the prog era and then the rest of the 80s or at least up to HYF is usually considered the synth era. I don't think Rush were ever new wave but I think once they had that influence that's what is meant by the synth era. 

[Gemari77]

This was a common sentiment when I became a fan in the 90’s… Lots of fans either online or in person would say things like ‘I only like OLD Rush’… which at the time, meant anything before Signals. The synth era was really unpopular and even the band ditched many of those songs on the CP and T4E tours…. I honestly don’t come across it much anymore. Maybe because I’m stuck in an ecosystem that either doesn’t listen to Rush or they’re the type of fan who enjoys all eras. Either way, the synth era (and the band in general) seems way more respected now. 

[PurpleHayes]

1 hour ago, Gemari77 said:

This was a common sentiment when I became a fan in the 90’s… Lots of fans either online or in person would say things like ‘I only like OLD Rush’… which at the time, meant anything before Signals. The synth era was really unpopular and even the band ditched many of those songs on the CP and T4E tours…. I honestly don’t come across it much anymore. Maybe because I’m stuck in an ecosystem that either doesn’t listen to Rush or they’re the type of fan who enjoys all eras. Either way, the synth era (and the band in general) seems way more respected now. 

 

Really? It's true they lost some of those fans from the 2112-MP era, but they also gained new ones...including yours truly. As far as ditching some of those songs, that's true but it was part of a cycle: in the 80s they ditched a lot of the older longer songs from their 70s era, so it sounds reasonable that they would ditch some of their 80s materials during the 90s...bands get tired of playing the same stuff, so it doesn't surprise me.

 

What does surprise me is that on the Signals, GUP, PW, and HYF tours they played 90% of the albums in concert, which to me was a bit excessive...especially with HYF. It seems like they backed off a little on promoting the new albums starting with Presto Changeo, but I could be wrong.

[Lurkst]

12 hours ago, PurpleHayes said:

What does surprise me is that on the Signals, GUP, PW, and HYF tours they played 90% of the albums in concert, which to me was a bit excessive...especially with HYF. It seems like they backed off a little on promoting the new albums starting with Presto Changeo, but I could be wrong.

 

They played as much of Counterparts in concert as they did HYF (6 songs). That was the last tour before the show went to two sets and they could go large on new stuff again eventually.

 

 

Edited May 1 by Lurkst

[fraroc]

On 4/30/2026 at 11:51 AM, Gemari77 said:

This was a common sentiment when I became a fan in the 90’s… Lots of fans either online or in person would say things like ‘I only like OLD Rush’… which at the time, meant anything before Signals. The synth era was really unpopular and even the band ditched many of those songs on the CP and T4E tours…. I honestly don’t come across it much anymore. Maybe because I’m stuck in an ecosystem that either doesn’t listen to Rush or they’re the type of fan who enjoys all eras. Either way, the synth era (and the band in general) seems way more respected now. 

 

Whats interesting is that the counterparts tour saw them bringing back The Analog Kid and Mystic Rhythms back in the set which hadnt been done since their respective album tours.

[ytserush]

On 5/4/2026 at 1:50 PM, fraroc said:

 

Whats interesting is that the counterparts tour saw them bringing back The Analog Kid and Mystic Rhythms back in the set which hadnt been done since their respective album tours.

That really started on the 3rd US leg of the Roll The Bones Tour with the resurrection of The Trees, The Analog Kid and the Cygnus X1 teaser that closed the show. I really think that Les Claypool had a lot to do with that revisiting the band's legacy.