Very observant of you, Dave, I was thinking the same thing ...
That limey luthier who went to California and did the Gibson West Coast Custom Shop for some years. It's very much his handwriting, the kitsch maple top, DiMarzio pups, but retaining the trusted three point, the brownish back color - all ingredients shared by my Explorer. Even the CS logo is as on my Explorer (there are further pics on the linked dealer site at the start of this thread, just not very obviously presented, this is where I took this from):
The big dif was that the Explorer was a lovingly done fake after the WCCS had ceased to exist for 2.000 bucks and this here is so far a mystery for 5.OOO bucks. With the Explorer I accepted to be very likely getting a well-executed fake, with this I have to be sure at the price.
Geddy Lee with a short scale? You need a lot of Passages to Bangkok to believe that. If the Rush connection is true than I'm more likely to think that Alex Lifeson asked for something like that to try out bass parts for his compositions, guitarists like short scale basses.