Richie Faulkner says he used a Bigsby-equipped Fender Telecaster for his clean tone on Judas Priest’s Firepower

You think you know somebody and then they do something that is so out of character it all but makes you question physical laws. Take Richie Faulkner. The Gibson Flying V is to Faulkner what the luxuriant mustache is to Tom Selleck, and yet, today we learn the Gibson superfan crossed the great electric guitar divide to pick up a Fender Telecaster when recording clean tones for Judas Priest’s leather-studded 2018 face-ripper, Firepower.

Speaking to Ultimate Guitar, he revealed what we are actually hearing on the record, and indeed how he added an MIJ Telecaster Custom to his arsenal.

“I used a Telecaster on all of the clean guitars on Firepower,” he said. “It was a Japanese Telecaster through a Roland JC-120 and that was what I used for all of the clean guitars.”

But before Cesar and the gang cancel Faulkner's keycard pass for the Gibson HQ, let’s all just hear him out. We want to hear how he came into possession of such contraband. As it turns out, Hatsune Miku by way of Korg made him do it.

“Do you remember, there was a pedal called the Miku pedal? I think Miku was a Japanese anime character and she has a distinctive voice,” said Faulkner. “So when you play notes through the pedal, it sort of speaks in this character's voice. It’s ridiculous, but it’s hilarious.

“I found one of these pedals in a store in Amsterdam, and I needed a guitar to test it out with. So they had this beautiful black Telecaster Custom, with a Bigsby type tremolo on it and I used that to play this pedal. Long story short, I bought both of them because the Telecaster was beautiful, and the pedal was ridiculous.”

Faulkner was asked about the Fender Stratocaster, which for Elegant Weapons, the band he put together in 2022 with Rex Brown on bass and his fellow Priest Scott Travis on drums, makes sense.

Described by Faulkner as “a mix of Jimi Hendrix, Judas Priest, Sabbath, solo Ozzy and Black Label Society – heavy, catchy, and with melody”, Elegant Weapons could perhaps use a Strat the in mix to complement the full meat of the humbuckers that have defined Faulkner’s sound with Priest.

Well, funnily enough, Faulkner did use a Strat during the sessions for Elegant Weapons’ debut album, Horns for a Halo. But the song he used it on didn’t make the cut. Maybe next time.

In the meantime, you’ll probably find him on-brand, with a Gibson in hand, and most likely a Flying V, having started out his Judas Priest career with a white Gibson Les Paul Custom equipped with a set of active EMGs for extra juice and fire. 

He tells Ultimate Guitar that having used them all these years, and having put his name to various signature guitars with the Nashville-based brand, that is what he still reaches for when it’s time to go to work.

“The guitar on the record is a Gibson Flying V,” he said. “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… they’re the guitars that I turned to… 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.”

Elegant Weapons’ Horns for a Halo is out now via Nuclear Blast.