The same guy also told Alex, "No reverb." He told Geddy to play the Fender Jazz. This is for Counterparts. The explicit goal was to "go back" to a more organic and rock sound. The band hired this guy for a specific reason to get a specific sound. Supposedly Alex and Kevin(The Caveman) went out and settled their issues over a bottle of scotch. At the time Rush was "searching" for the next iteration of the band. They went out and specifically hired a contrarian to see what the difference would be.
FWIW, there are only a few songs on Counterparts that I really like. It's Rush, so I like the whole album, but there are only a few songs that I embrace.
I was doing this from memory, so you guys made me look it up......The producer for this album was Peter Collins, but the sound engineer was Kevin Shirley and he was the guy making demands (no PRS guitars, no reverb, play the Fender Jazz bass, etc.)
When I’m producing an ad session, I never tell the session players what type of guitars to play, or even amps. I want their sound; if I wanted my sound, I’d play the track myself.
So did Rush ever hire this producer and engineer again (not a Rush fan, so I don’t know)?