Vintage Alex Lifeson video 1977

[Rickenbacker]

Was delighted to run into this video today of Alex being interviewed about his guitars. File this under "New To Me". Maybe some of you have seen it. Fairly bad video quality, but clean audio. Alex as he was as a young man. Enjoy!

[GuitarGeek]

Clearly an amateur cameraman who doesn't seem to know too much about what he's doing (notice how he only zooms in on the Les Paul or the ES-335 after Alex is done talking about them).

Still, it's a nice video, kinda cool to hear Alex talking about his guitars, even if we can't see them very clearly. The ES-335 he mentions near the beginning, "The Baby", and as he says, and the doubleneck were the one that got smashed by a PA horn during an open air show a year or two later.

[ThomasKDye]

The ES-335 he mentions near the beginning, "The Baby", and as he says, and the doubleneck were the one that got smashed by a PA horn during an open air show a year or two later.

And then he got a Telecaster...and learned to deal with it after disliking it at first? I vaguely remember this story.

[GuitarGeek]

And then he got a Telecaster...and learned to deal with it after disliking it at first? I vaguely remember this story.

A Strat, actually. He started using the Strat during the Permanent Waves era, though he was still using Gibsons (the white ES-355, a sunburst ES-345, and couple others too). But yeah, I think he had said trouble dealing with it at first. He put a humbucker on it, and removed one of the tone controls and moved the other knobs down because the volume control got in the way of his picking hand, as well as installing a Gibson style pickup switch on the lower horn.

Eventually, the Strats (I think he had three of them) kinda became his "go to" guitars during the Signals/Grace Under Pressure/Power Windows era, along with a customized Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion. If I remember correctly, he replaced the necks on his Strats with ones that felt more like the Gibson style neck shape, along with installing a Floyd Rose (just the bridge, no locking nut).

I think Alex said the very first time he used a Telecaster was on Kid Gloves.

[nosebone]

I saw that Rush/UFO tour at the Palladium NYC.

Cheap Trick opened.

[Digital_Man]

After he was done doing this video he pigged out on cheese right?

[Garyhead]

Fodder for a Spinal Tap scene?