JUDAS PRIEST / ELEGANT WEAPONS Guitarist RICHIE FAULKNER Talks Choosing Gibson Guitars - "When I Started Playing Cover Songs In Bands, That Was The Tool That Enabled Me To Play Those Songs Properly"

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11:00 Friday, 19 May 2023

JUDAS PRIEST / ELEGANT WEAPONS Guitarist RICHIE FAULKNER Talks Choosing Gibson Guitars - "When I Started Playing Cover Songs In Bands, That Was The Tool That Enabled Me To Play Those Songs Properly"

Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner recently sat down with Ultimate Guitar's Justin Beckner to discuss all things guitar, as well as Richie's supergroup, Elegant Weapons. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

UG: Is it fair to call you a Gibson guy? I mean, if you're in a guitar store, is that the first thing you reach for? I know you do have some Strats as well.

Faulkner: "Yeah, I've got a few things around the house, but I think that what I play as a working guitar player, shall we say, like we were just saying, the guitar on the record is a Gibson Flying V. So the guitars that I end up using are Gibsons. They're my guitars of choice. That's the guitar that I put my name on if you know what I mean, they're the guitars that I turned to.

The first guitar I got was a Strat copy, and the reason I turned to Gibson… I didn't know anything about humbuckers, or single coils, or anything like that at the time, but I gravitated towards Gibson because that was the sound that was enabling me to play the songs that I wanted to play. That was the sound that was in my head. When I started playing cover songs in bands, that was the guitar, that was the tool, that enabled me to play those songs properly. It was the right weight and it felt right and the sound from the humbuckers was right. You know, all those things, and I've been a Gibson man ever since. So yeah, that's the guitar I put my name to, literally, with the signature guitar."