Rush "Tom Sawyer" Isolated Guitar

Staying with our guitar themed Fridays, here's Alex Lifeson's isolated guitar from Rush's seminal "Tom Sawyer," one of the most popular cuts from their breakthrough Moving Pictures album. What's interesting is that there's not a lot of production trickery here. It's just one man and his guitar; no doubles or stacking. The guitar solo is different from the rest of the song, but you'd expect that in almost any recording. Here are some things to listen for.

1. The guitar is heavily chorused, but the dry signal is panned to the center while the chorus is spread out left and right.

2. Check out the very long 20 second sustain starting at 1:27.

3. The guitar sound changes in the solo, with the dry signal slightly to the right with a short double panned to the left.

Rush is a band that can pull off their records live because they play it that way in the studio. This example is Lifeson and Rush at their best.

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