04/01/2026
NEW GIBSON ALEX LIFESON DOUBLE NECK
NOW IN STOCK!! TODAY ONLY!😮
As Rush gear up for the Fifty Something Tour this June, Gibson has officially unveiled one of the instruments that will define the tour's sonic landscape: the Alex Lifeson Signature EDS-2550. This isn't just another reissue; it is the world’s first production double-neck guitar featuring 22-Tone Equal Temperament (22-TET) microtonal fretboards. Built to Alex Lifeson’s exacting specifications, the EDS-2550 moves beyond the traditional 12-note Western scale. By utilising 22 notes per octave, Lifeson is venturing into "the notes between the notes," offering a shimmering, almost Eastern harmonic palette.
The first thing that hits you is the colour. Shunning the traditional Heritage Cherry or Alpine White, Alex drew inspiration from an unlikely source: the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! series. While watching the show with his two youngest grandkids, Alex became fixated on the Ghost of Captain Cutler, the legendary deep-sea diver whose luminous green suit haunted the coves of Rocky Point. Captivated by that eerie, nostalgic glow, he opted for a custom nitrocellulose finish aptly dubbed "Captain Cutler" Green. "I thought it would be cool to capture that specific glow-in-the-dark effect on a guitar," Alex noted. The result is a finish that looks just as much like a classic monster-of-the-week as it does a high-end instrument.
The seeds for this microtonal evolution were planted during Alex Lifeson’s work on Envy of None’s second album Stygian Wavz . It was there that the influence of vocalist Maiah Wynne began to reshape Alex's approach to the fretboard. "Working with Maiah has been so inspirational," Alex says, leaning back with a grin. "She’s always so inventive and experimental. She actually introduced me to the band Angine de Poitrine, and their use of microtonal scales just blew my mind. From there I investigated other bands like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Ventifacts, Perineum and Wander Lambert & the Negative Space Symphony.”
Never one to keep a musical discovery to himself, Alex brought the sound to Geddy. The result was an immediate, obsessive deep dive into the "notes between the notes ” for the duo.
Throughout the better part of last summer, Geddy’s long-term bass tech, John "Skully" McIntosh was locked in a deep collaboration with Master Builder Jason Smith at the Fender Custom Shop. Together, they have engineered a series of bespoke microtonal Jazz basses for the Tour.
Unlike a standard instrument, these basses feature additional, precision-placed frets that allow Geddy to navigate intervals smaller than a traditional semitone—opening up a haunting, "in-between" harmonic landscape rarely explored in rock.
Not wanting to be outdone in the quest for "in-between" notes, Alex reached out to Jim DeCola at Gibson to push the boundaries of his own rig. The result of their collaboration is the Gibson EDS-2550 Microtonal Double-Neck—an instrument that essentially defies musical logic.
By marrying the iconic silhouette of his classic double-neck with a custom-engineered fretboard designed for micro-intervals, Alex has created a tool that allows him to mirror Geddy's new harmonic explorations while maintaining that signature Gibson roar. It’s a specialised beast that looks like a vintage relic but plays like a transmission from another dimension.
For Alex and Geddy, this isn't just about new toys; it’s about textural expansion.
“I’ve always played with the space between the notes," Alex joked at the Juno Awards on Sunday. "Now, I’ve finally found where Gibson hid the rest of them."
Fans wondering how the classics will hold up under this new tuning needn't worry. According to Alex, the microtonal shift isn't about rewriting the songs, but about unlocking their long hidden sonic secrets.
"We’ve been reworking the setlist, and the results are incredible,” Alex notes. "Xanadu, in particular, sounds even more mystical. Adding those microtonal layers gives it this shimmering, otherworldly quality that we could never quite capture with standard Western tuning. We’re going to the places maps don't cover!”
As Rush finalises preparations for the road. on what they’ve cheekily dubbed the "Fifty Something Notes Tour," it’s becoming clear that this run is far more than a mere nostalgia trip. With their venture into the microtonal subdivisions, the band is proving that even after five decades, there are still new frequencies to find.
