Greetings, Guitar World faithful. Here's a sad story that I'm sure you'll be able to sympathize with. I've never eulogized a guitar (or person) before, so consider this a first. Join me as we mourn the loss of the First Act guitar you see here. What made this guitar special was that it was signed by Rush's Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson when they visited Guitar World's NYC headquarters last year...causing a rare smile to come across the face of the owner of the guitar, our own mad genius online creative director Ben Shapiro, who happens to be a huge Rush fan.

   
 

As is typical of most mad genius web people, Ben tends to do his best work for guitarworld.com at four o'clock in the morning, so he's not in the office every day...but the prize Rush guitar sat by his desk day in and day out regardless. One day I noticed the guitar was no longer at his desk, so I started asking officemates if they knew anything about its whereabouts. Long story short, a freelancer here (who shall remain nameless) thought the guitar had no owner, and proceeded to give it to a friend of his...who noticed the Sharpie scribblings (but couldn't identify the signatures) and used nailpolish remover to wipe them off the guitar!

   
 

So while the guitar is safe and sound, the Lifeson and Lee signatures are gone forever.

If you would like to send Ben a condolence, email him at soundingboard@guitarworld.com.