Troy Hughes: Rush’s “The Big Money” Playthrough

Troy Hughes has a knack for nailing Geddy Lee’s lines. So much so that he’s featured on the Rush website. However, he couldn’t quite get the tone perfect for songs from the Power Windows album until an incredible trip to get the bass he’d always wanted.

Hughes procured a Wal bass from former Puddle of Mudd bassist and founding member Sean Sammon. “I had quite an adventure flying from NY to Florida to pick it up and hand-carry it back with me, which I wrote about in great length in the section [in] the video [description],” Hughes told us. “This is the song I always dreamed of playing on a Wal and recorded it as soon as I got back home with the bass. I find that I can usually get in the neighborhood of Geddy’s sound using the Jazz bass and Ric on the material he used those basses on. But neither gets as close, out of the box, as this Wal does to his sound on the Power Windows album.”

Check out the full story on Youtube, and get a load of that tone right here:

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Leave a Reply to Billy Cancel reply

  1. MikeyOnBass

    Love It ? This is actually one of my favorite songs from the 80’s. Great bass tone.

    • Troy Hughes

      Thanks Mikey. It’s one of my songs from that era of Rush as well and it was a joy to play on this bass.

      • Vineyardedge

        I started to learn this song back when this cd came out. I never made it as far as you did. Sheesh! You are the doublestop king!! Great job & the tone really is amazing.

  2. Markus Steitz

    Why did the g-string sounds so different compared to the other strings, zzzzzzzzinnngg ?
    great playing

  3. Chris

    Dat tone!

  4. Billy

    Troy, I’ve watched & heard u play just about anything from just bout from any of the legendary groups, really great player!! Very inspiring for us just starting to get around the bass!!

  5. Garrett

    How in the world does Geddy play these lines and sing at the same time? It just makes my head spin!

    • Brian

      How ’bout it! That’s why there’s only one Geddy Lee. Any play keys/triggers with his feet too!

  6. Brian

    Wow. You are amazing. Yeah, that tone is extremely close, if not identical. Did he use the Steinberger for the recording of that song? I love Power Windows. I love alex’s solo on that tune. I used to play guitar at a serious level and Alex, Eric Johnson, Trevor Rabin and David Gilmour were always my biggest influences. Alex by far my fave. Great to see someone with such passion as you. Wonderful playing man. Outstanding.