Alex Lifeson

I’ve been a huge Rush fan for over 30 years now. Since buying the Axe FX III I’ve been trying to get some of my favorite tones from Alex Lifeson. And we all know Alex is a gear nut! I’ve been able to dial in the Grace Under Pressure tones which have been fun to jam with. But I would love to see if anyone else has other presets, or suggestions on presets, they could share.

I’m looking for the clean jangly tone from the verses of the song Show Don’t Tell. I know he uses piezo pickups, so is that the secret to that tone? What could mimic that tone in a Fractal and switch to his distorted tone as well? Also, on the DVD Show of Hands, Alex’s sound is remarkable. Anyone have a preset on his clean and distorted tones they could share? Thank you in advance for your feedback and help. Cheers!
 
The clean tones he was using in the Hold Your Fire and Presto era I always thought were him DI'ing the Signature guitars he was playing with their active single coil pickups.

If you watch the Show Of Hands video you can hear those tones and I really don't think the Piezo's were there then. I do know I've read interviews with him where he said the live rig always had a couple of direct to PA signal paths and I cannot remember any mention of piezos

The Rock Me On factory preset is a start. Plus there have been some other Rockman type DI presets posted. You can then add the clean to whichever dirty amps you like

I have an old preset that evolved from my AX8 with a sort of Rockman clean on one scene over to a JCM800 crunch and lead scenes. Try something like that
 
Here's my Grace Under Pressure preset for Axe Fx III. I've just started using the Fractal so I'm still pretty new to all the parameters. Alex i known for his chorus and lush delays so I hope I'm capturing it accurately. The three scenes include a Solo with a pitch shifter for Red Sector A. Hope it gives everyone a good starting point to make theirs.
 

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I'm a fan of Alex for 40 years and counting. Hopefully I can post this link here. It's a complex sound I made for my Axe 2. My efforts to port it over to my new FM3 with the conversion software haven't been too successful so give me a little while and I'll post a new FM3 version.

That was fantastic David!! It’s one of my favorites. You nailed the solo and the tone! Looking forward to the preset. Thx!
 
I'm a fan of Alex for 40 years and counting. Hopefully I can post this link here. It's a complex sound I made for my Axe 2. My efforts to port it over to my new FM3 with the conversion software haven't been too successful so give me a little while and I'll post a new FM3 version.

+1 that this is awesome. As an FM3 user, if you ever do get around to posting a preset for that that's even somewhat near to that, I'd love to snag it (or, some starting points/block choices for Lifeson 80s tones!) I'm a Rush fanatic for the whole catalog and so much of what is available is stuff from prior to AX3 & can't be imported to the FM3. I'll eventually try my hand at making my own, but would love to get whatever is out there.
 
Hi David - that Big Money video was outstanding! Were you ever able to convert your Axe 2 preset to FM3-compatible? I'm in a Rush tribute band and looking at starting to incorporate some of the mid-80's material. Thanks!!
 
Hello everyone!

I've also been looking for those Alex's Power windows guitar sounds for ages. I haven't really been able to "crack the code" especially with the clean tones. Has anyone succeded to recreate them? David Carr's The big money-cover sounds really amazing. Is there a preset of his available?
 
Hello everyone!

I've also been looking for those Alex's Power windows guitar sounds for ages. I haven't really been able to "crack the code" especially with the clean tones. Has anyone succeded to recreate them? David Carr's The big money-cover sounds really amazing. Is there a preset of his available?
Hi All,
I've been working hard on an FM3 version of this sound using the virtual capo. It's getting super close. I firstly want to release my new Rockman patches and hope Brett K might help me refine them.
 

I know this has to be the obvious starting point when you´re talking about Rush, but as you guys don´t talk about it here
it has to be said that we have Alex signature amp the 100W Lerxst Omega (Brit Silver) in the axefx.

Could be cool to know for those of you Rush people who didn´t know.... :)


And here I thought the Brit Silver was the Marshall Silver Jubilee. Doh!!
 
Hi All,
I've been working hard on an FM3 version of this sound using the virtual capo. It's getting super close. I firstly want to release my new Rockman patches and hope Brett K might help me refine them.
Hey David. I'm no Rockman expert but I'll be happy to take a look and listen for you. One of our admins nailed some amazing Rockman tones recently but I'm not sure if they're in the public domain - or if they will ever be. However, shoot yours through and I'll check them out. Hope you're well!
 
Hey David. I'm no Rockman expert but I'll be happy to take a look and listen for you. One of our admins nailed some amazing Rockman tones recently but I'm not sure if they're in the public domain - or if they will ever be. However, shoot yours through and I'll check them out. Hope you're well!
Thanks kind Sir. I thought I saw you had a real one there, an X100 to compare it with?
 
I do, yes. I fired it up a few weeks ago just for fun and found that it was not as great (to my ears and taste) as some of the recent attempts here to emulate it. But I love it nonetheless as it represents a formative time in my career. And it works. :D
Just sent you a message via instagram. Thanks again. xx
 
I've just updated my FM3 firmware to most recent and noticed the presets I'm working on sound different. The mids are sucked out. Is the 'high mid' function in the drive block new cause I can't remember? It's defaulting to zero- not sure I would have done that . . .
 
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