We break down how prog rock’s most influential 6-stringer combines timeless riffs, a huge sound, and a penchant for experimentation.

PRS honors the Rush guitarist with a slim, nimble, and fast-playing flattop.

Developed from hands-on analysis and digital scans of the original neck and body profiles.

A signature thinline acoustic from the legendary Rush guitarist.

The Alex Lifeson signature acoustic is made in PRS Guitars’ Maryland shop and features a bearclaw spruce top and koa back and sides with a mahogany neck and ebony bridge, fretboard, and headstock veneer.

A nine-piece string ensemble joins the group on the Clockwork material, as well as on a few older Rush chestnuts (“YYZ” and “Red Sector A”).

Photographer Lisa S. Johnson captures the story behind rock’s most iconic axes owned by Page, Beck, Gibbons, and others—with commentary from the guitarists themselves.

PG's Rebecca Dirks is On Location in Chicago, IL, at the United Center where she talks with Rush's Alex Lifeson's tech Scott Appleton about the gear Lifeson is using on Rush's 2011 Time Machine tour. Appleton shows off all Lifeson's gear, including Gibson Les Paul Axcess Alex Lifeson Signature models, a ES-355, a Fender reissue '52 Tele, and two '90s PRS models. Lifeson uses Hughes & Kettner TriAmp MKII Alex Lifeson Signature heads, Steam Punk Statesman 2x12 Cabinets, and a Hughes & Kettner Coreblade.

Rush''s Alex Lifeson on his return to Gibson, emotional attachment to gear, and his epic gearbox.