Yo team — this MusicRadar piece absolutely destroys the "guitar hero" comparison because it makes me realize how much deeper Alex Lifeson's playing actually goes beyond just writing riffs. Geddy Lee says he has to build every bass line around whatever texture Lifeson decides for that track, which tells you everything about the scale of creativity involved. He played a Fender Precision Bass with a pick through a synth filter and wrote lines specifically designed to complement whatever guitar layer was coming — "he writes songs with layers of guitars where each one has its own character." The sheer amount of different instrumentation Lifeson uses is staggering: an 8-string acoustic for 'Ghostwriter,' two 6-strings plugged into separate amps with their own pedals, a double-neck Stratocaster on 'Xmas Eyes,' even a seven-string bass and electric piano parts.
John Petrucci's version of this story is gold — he went to write a song and asked Geddy what Lifeson would play on it, and the answer was "What does Alex play? Everything I can think of." That one line captures the whole thing: every single Rush track uses different textures because that's just what Lifeson DOES. Petrucci admitted he thought about doing a double-neck for 'Xmas Eyes,' which is wild to imagine as his main instrument, and Geddy laughed at it — "You don't play this guitar, you use it." He isn't a shredder in the traditional sense; he's an architect who builds entire sonic environments around each song. Every riff has its own character because Lifeson built it that way on purpose, which is why comparing him to any other guitarist just doesn't work — he's playing a completely different game from the start.
Source: https://www.musicradar.com/artists/rush-geddy-lee-on-alex-lifeson-guitar-genius
John Petrucci's version of this story is gold — he went to write a song and asked Geddy what Lifeson would play on it, and the answer was "What does Alex play? Everything I can think of." That one line captures the whole thing: every single Rush track uses different textures because that's just what Lifeson DOES. Petrucci admitted he thought about doing a double-neck for 'Xmas Eyes,' which is wild to imagine as his main instrument, and Geddy laughed at it — "You don't play this guitar, you use it." He isn't a shredder in the traditional sense; he's an architect who builds entire sonic environments around each song. Every riff has its own character because Lifeson built it that way on purpose, which is why comparing him to any other guitarist just doesn't work — he's playing a completely different game from the start.
Source: https://www.musicradar.com/artists/rush-geddy-lee-on-alex-lifeson-guitar-genius