Alex Lifeson has explained what he feels are the “limitations” of the Fender Stratocaster while detailing the crucial mods he made to get his models firing for Rush.
Typically, Lifeson is known as a Les Paul guy, but he’s from one a one-model-player. Throughout his career, he has reached for a variety of six-strings to ensure that Rush’s discography was as colorful as possible, and the Strat has played a role in one of his most famed electric guitars.
The Canadian accepts that single-coil Strats will always be a “useful” tool in any guitarist’s arsenal, but he was left looking for more from his in the late ‘70s. That led to some crucial changes that saw its tailor-made successor dominate the band’s ‘80s output.
His Strat started life as a backup for the Gibson 335 that was primarily used for tracks like “Anthem”’s 7/8 fury and “La Villa Strangiato”’s twisting adventurism.
“The story begins in 1978 when I modified a Fender Stratocaster that I purchased new,” he explains to Guitar World. “I replaced the bridge single-coil with a Gibson humbucker, reversed the input jack for easier access, and added a Floyd Rose tremolo to replace the Fender tremolo. I used this guitar as a spare primarily and started using it increasingly for the Floyd Rose.”
Fleshing out the context of the Strat’s bastardization, he told Ultimate Guitar: “You know, I'm more of a humbucker guy, I always have been. Fenders are very, very useful, single-coils are very, very useful, and I've always had them. But I needed a backup for my 335 at the time.
“I owned a 1956 Strat in 1973 as a backup to the ES-335,” he adds. “It made me think and play differently... and it sounded great.”
But this newly purchased Strat left him wanting more.
“There were limitations to the Fender,” Lifeson explains. “The vibrato arm's range wasn't that great. It was a character that I didn't want. I wanted something that moved more.
“So I remember routing it and installing that thing when we were on tour in England. I think there are photos floating around with me actually working in the dressing room, putting that guitar together.
That led to the birth of the Hentor Sportscaster, which itself wasn’t a Strat-proper, but echoed the good parts of his modded Strat, and eliminated the bad.
“I commissioned Veneman Music to build a replica incorporating a shark neck, Floyd Rose, and Bill Lawrence L500 pickup,” he continues. “This was the Hentor Sportscaster. This became the model for the Lerxst Limelight." Lifeson’s new signature guitar with Godin.
“I used the Hentor on a lot of recordings and particularly liked it for soloing,” he says of the guitar’s legacy. “One standout recording is the solo from ‘Limelight’ – [hence the Lerxst’s name]. It was the perfect selection to create the soulful, elastic and unstable character for the solo of that song.”
Meanwhile, Lifeson has revealed he and Geddy Lee are “bombarded” with offers from drummers desperate to fill Neil Peart's vacant drum stool, but he's in no mood to entertain them,.
Peart, a vital songwriting force in the band, died in 2020. Though the band had already retired, it looked to be the definitive end for the prog legends. But that didn’t stop an army of drummers chancing their arm.
“After Neil passed, it didn't take more than a few minutes before we started getting emails from all kinds of drummers who wanted to audition for the band,” he says. “[They were] thinking that we were just gonna replace somebody that we played with for 40 years who wrote all the lyrics for our music.
“We're bombarded by it all the time. I don't know what some of these people were thinking.”
His comments come after revealing how he and Geddy, who still live minutes away from one another, regularly jam and have been recording their sessions. However, he believes they sound like “a really bad tribute band” and simply sees their time together as a way to keep sharp.
Lifeson's priorities seem to lie with Lerxst and his new band, Envy of None.
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