The Spirit of Radio guitar tone

The rig Rush used

Researched from interviews, production write-ups and gear histories — not guessed.

Signal chain

The order the original sound was built in. The exact settings get dialled for your own amp or modeller when you generate the tone.

1. Gibson ES-355

   1

   Main electric voice

   guitar
2. MXR Dyna Comp

   2

   Evens out the clean parts

   comp
3. Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble

   3

   Widens the guitar across the whole record

   mod
4. Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress

   4

   The signature jet-swirl on the intro

   mod
5. Maestro Echoplex EP-3

   5

   Lead and outro echo

   delay
6. Hiwatt Custom 100 (DR103)

   6

   Clean and chiming path

   amp
7. Marshall 4140 Club & Country

   7

   Crunch and lead path

   amp
8. Hiwatt 4x12 (Fane)

   8

   Main cabinet

   cab
9. Shure SM57

   9

   Close mic

   mic
10. EMT 140 Plate Reverb

    10

    Studio plate ambience

    reverb

Why we think this is right

Permanent Waves was recorded at Le Studio, Morin-Heights, in 1979 and released in January 1980. Lifeson's white Gibson ES-355 into a Hiwatt Custom 100 (DR103) is the documented core, with an Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress producing the swirling opening figure and an MXR Dyna Comp and Maestro Echoplex as period pedalboard staples. The strongest single piece of evidence available for this record is a Guitar Player interview from June 1980 in which Lifeson names the Boss chorus he had used since A Farewell To Kings and says that almost every song on Permanent Waves has chorus on it, which is a dated first-person statement about this album by name and is why a CE-1 now appears in the chain. The one real weakness is the Marshall: the tone of the riff is plainly a different amp from the intro, but no source names which Marshall was at Le Studio, so the 4140 documented in his rig the following year is carried at low confidence with the reasoning shown rather than a hedge left in the amplifier field.

Sources

• Alex Lifeson, Guitar Player, June 1980 - chorus used since A Farewell To Kings; 'almost every song has Chorus' on Permanent Waves; Maestro phaser preferred to MXR
• Line 6 artist rig diagram - Alex Lifeson, Moving Pictures tour rig (Marshall 4140 Club & Country and Hiwatt, MXR pedals, Boss CE-1, Electric Mistress) - a TOUR rig from the following year, used here only as era evidence
• Equipboard - Rush, Permanent Waves album gear
• Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress product history

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