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Ah, yes. The perpetual analogue vs digital guitar gear debate. It divides the guitar community like few other topics, with prominent and well-qualified voices on both sides.

Last month, Analog Man legend Mike Piera weighed in on digital guitar gear and amp modellers, saying those who use them are missing out on a huge part of guitar tone. He added that digital amp modellers are “not any fun”. 

Meanwhile, Joe Bonamassa recently questioned the cool factor of digital gear, pondering whether Eddie Van Halen would have made the same splash were he using a Neural DSP Quad Cortex instead of vintage analogue gear. JoBo is, of course, an avid vintage gear collector – with two physical locations in Nashville and LA housing his vast collection – but we’ll park that for now…

• READ MORE: “A compelling entry into the world of American-crafted archtops”: Heritage updates its Standard II Collection with new H-575 model

But not everyone is married to the idea that vintage is always better; in November, AFI guitarist Jade Puget revealed he’d ditched tube amps in favour of a digital Line 6 Helix as the former made him feel “constrained”.

Yep, the pool of digital converts is expanding, but don’t count the Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson among them quite yet.

In a new interview in the latest print issue of Guitar World, Robinson says that digital amp modellers are “getting close, but you can never account for the physics of a room”.

He explains: “What’s the humidity like? What’s the oxygen level like? Are you at high altitude or low altitude? What’s the shape of the room? Where is the microphone being placed? All of these things can have a big effect on your sound.

“Your tone that comes out will always be what it is, but everything else needs to be taken into consideration. 

“Then there’s the feeling aspect. You have this symbiotic relationship with your amp. You’re literally connected to it. You’re plugged in and feeling that. It’s vibrating the floor and you’re hearing it, feeling it and playing with it. I think that’s when it becomes like this big oscillation. You’re in it.”

Part of Robinson’s favour of analogue gear over digital is his dislike of computers, as he explains.

“The whole purpose of rock ‘n’ roll is to [play with] abandon. It could go off the rails at any time. If everybody is on a computer listening to a click track playing their music around the light show rather than the actual songs, there’s no chance of greatness or failure… There’s nothing more boring than sitting at a computer.”

The Black Crowes have a series of tour dates planned throughout 2026, making stops in Australia, Japan, the US, and Europe. For tickets and a full list of dates, head to their official website. They also have a new album out, A Pound of Feathers. Check out one of its singles, Profane Prophecy, below:

The post “They’re getting close, but you can never account for the physics of a room”: Why the Black Crowes’ Rich Robinson isn’t yet a amp modeller convert appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

How much of a threat to musicians is AI? It’s been the subject of intense debate in the last year or more, and guitarist Zakk Wylde reckons there’s actually not that much to be worried about.

In a recent Q&A session, the Black Label Society frontman and former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist called AI a “fun” tool, but dispelled fears that it could actually replace human artists. “You can’t replace what’s coming out of Ozzy’s mind,” he said.

And now, Wylde has doubled down on his assertion that AI isn’t as scary as some make it out to be, telling Qobuz [via Blabbermouth]: “To me, it’s no big deal.”

• READ MORE: Zakk Wylde says the riff for Miracle Man was inspired by this classic Jimi Hendrix song

Specifically talking about AI music generators which are trained on large datasets to come up with music based on simple user prompts, Wylde says: “Whoever the artist is that you love, whether it’s Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath, you’ll never be able to replace what’s gonna come out of Tony [Iommi’s] riffs, what Geezer [Butler] is gonna write lyrically, what Bill [Ward] is gonna play, what melodies Ozzy’s gonna sing, because they’re creating it.”

He continues: “But I get it. I mean, if AI listens to all of Ozzy’s melodies and gets a feel for what Ozzy’s style is, and then hears Tony’s riffs and then it could hear the tendencies Bill plays, certain fills he does, and the way Geezer plays bass, and it listens to the lyrics… and it comes up with something, it’d be no different than a songwriter trying to come up with something that Black Sabbath would write.”

He says the same principle applies to an AI algorithm trying to replicate the music of Jimi Hendrix, for example.

“Everyone’s terrified of [AI],” Wylde goes on. “I just think you can’t take away what’s in the mind of Jimi Hendrix… You can try and emulate it. 

“All I look at it is the computer is just giving a compliment to the sound of whatever band that they’re trying to [emulate], like the Eagles or something, [and write a song like Desperado or Hotel California].

“It doesn’t bother me, because I’m still gonna buy the record from the Eagles.

Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society are currently on tour in the US. Check out the band’s website for tickets and more details.

The post “It’s no different than a songwriter trying to come up with something Black Sabbath would write”: Why Zakk Wylde feels AI-generated music is “no big deal” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$2,749/£2,549, taylorguitars.com

You have to admit, it has been a bit weird looking at the full range of Taylor acoustic guitars over the last few decades without seeing a single square-shoulder dreadnought in the USA-made offering.

• READ MORE: Yamaha Chris Buck RS02CB review: one of the most compelling P-90-loaded electrics on the market

Sure, the stripped-down Mexico-made Academy series offered one, and Taylor re-released a limited run of the 810e to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary a few years back. But that guitar felt more like a nostalgic glance in the rear-view mirror rather than a new direction.

Taylor’s apparent reticence in the dreadnought department is understandable though. The success of the round-shouldered Grand Pacific design – arguably a much more versatile guitar than the classic dread – meant that another big body chugger was surplus to requirements. So what’s changed? Well, it’s time to unpack the new Taylor Gold Label 510E and see if it’s still hip to be square.

Taylor Gold Label 510E – what is it?

Taylor’s Gold Label series has gone from a retro indulgence to a fan favourite in a remarkably short space of time. The combination of 1930s-inspired visuals – including a tweaked headstock design and inlays – coupled with some typically forward-thinking under-the-hood design, and well-judged wood choices, has definitely had an impact on the acoustic scene.

Since I first checked out the range, I’ve been looking forward to seeing where the Gold Label goes next. I must admit, I was surprised when the answer was to adopt a shape that Taylor’s core line seemed to have left behind a long time ago, but given the Gold Label’s ethos of looking back at classic techniques and influences, perhaps it shouldn’t have been.

The 510e is a non-cutaway dreadnought with solid neo-tropical mahogany back and sides, and a solid, torrified Sitka spruce top. The neo-tropical mahogany neck features a West African crelicam ebony fingerboard, and it joins the body at the 14th fret as all classic square-shouldered dreads should be. Not so traditional, however, is the fact that the guitar is built around a 25.5” scale length – making it a touch longer than the Martin D-18. Interesting.

The Next Generation Grand Auditorium guitars have seen Taylor start to move away from the venerable ES2 pickup system, but while those guitars make use of the new in-house Claria system, the Gold Labels have always been spec’d with an LR Baggs Element VTC active pickup – that continues here. This boasts an onboard low-frequency compressor “tuned specifically to the natural texture of acoustic guitar tone,” according to Taylor, which is going to make things interesting.

Taylor Gold Label 510E – build quality and playability

Part Gibson J-50, part Collings or Bourgeois, the Gold Label 510e is a pleasing aesthetic mash-up that feels more posh, small workshop than pawnshop weird. The golden Sitka top, minimalist inlay design and fire stripe pickguard – albeit without the banjo-inspired art nouveau motif – all promise a sound and playing experience that veers from the uber-clean and precise vibe of a typical Taylor guitar.

The neo-tropical mahogany back and sides look inviting under the gloss finish. There is some striping reminiscent of sapele but it’s good-looking stuff. Although subtle, the body of this guitar is actually a touch deeper than a standard dread. How much difference this makes to the sound remains to be seen but it certainly feels comfortable against the body.

This model features Taylor’s Action Control Neck design, which allows for quick and easy fine-tuning of the action in a matter of seconds, without the need for a visit to a guitar tech. In fact if you buy the right bendy screwdriver off Amazon, you can do it yourself in a few seconds without even having to detune the guitar.

For touring players this is a godsend, and it’s another step forward in easy maintenance that has been such a hallmark of Taylor’s innovation over the last few decades. Despite the fancy engineering under the hood, Taylor necks always feel good. The Gold Label series version feels a little meatier than the standard issue but that could just be the power of suggestion.

This guitar features Taylor’s V-Class bracing which – like so many innovations before it – continues to divide opinion. Whereas personality is subjective, response is not. This is a lively and engaging guitar and the bracing may well be part of that.

Taylor Gold Label 510E – sounds

A mahogany dreadnought is just crying out for some big pick energy and with a BlueChip in hand, it’s time to dig in. As expected, the Gold Label 510e absolutely loves this. Big strums, liquid leads and fat G-runs. This is a very good time indeed.

There’s a lot of power and headroom to explore coupled with a pleasingly wide timbral range from the bridge to the end of the fretboard, which emphasises the fundamental of the note without denying us some of those good overtones. The initial attack may come across as a touch rounded if you’re used to the immediacy of a rosewood dread, but that is the nature of the beast.

Played fingerstyle in standard tuning, the Gold Label 510e is a little less happy. This is still a very young instrument, of course – fresh from the production line to my studio. Thumbpick enthusiasts will still find a lot to be happy about, but if you play softly with bare flesh, it can feel like steering an oil tanker.

Given that Taylor’s first foray into Gold Label dreads was a near-identical signature model for all-world flatpicker Trey Hensley, perhaps none of this should surprise anyone. Thankfully, the Taylor range is packed with dedicated fingerstyle instruments, and some of them are in the Gold Label series too.

Dropping the machine into DADGAD yields predictable results. The sympathetic resonance and lower frequencies immediately make the guitar sound more lush and open – the sustain envelope is smooth along the neck and there is no evidence of wolf tones or dead notes.

Any guitar with an E in the name is begging to be plugged in, so I ease the Gold Label 510e into a Fishman Solo Amp. The Baggs VTC element system is based on an undersaddle piezo pickup. The interesting bit of VTC is the C, which stands for compression. Yes, this pickup system has an in-built proprietary analogue compressor that operates below 400Hz. The soundhole-mounted volume and treble tone controls are easily accessible.

Plugged in, I am greeted with a pokey sound that still leans into the ping of the attack but can deliver warmth behind the initial transient. It’s not the cooked quack of an older piezo, but it lacks the warmth of something like a K+K. This will sit beautifully in a band mix, despite being a touch aggressive for a solo player without some gentle EQ shaping from the amp.

Taylor Gold Label 510E – should I buy one?

The Taylor Gold Label 510e is priced keenly. It’s considerably cheaper than its main competition and forefather – the Martin D-18 – and the other obvious mahogany choice, the Gibson Hummingbird. Aesthetically, it manages to sit in the middle of those two venerable ancestors, but the sound is still very Taylor.

While the unfinished bridge and internal glue blobs are a little scruffy for this company, they do fit the idiom, and this is a welcome addition to the world of the mahogany square-shoulder dreadnoughts.

[products ids=”5ZCnybCwfEVkbLq3vLxsr0″]

Taylor Gold Label 510E – alternatives

There is no shortage of quality square-shouldered dreadnought options out there, of course, but as mentioned above, the Gold Label 510e does offer a significant value proposition against the non-electro Martin D-18 ($2,999 / £3,199, the D-18e is currently discontinued) and the Gibson Hummingbird ($3,999 / £3,799). One truly exceptional guitar that can compete on the price front is the Bourgeois Touchstone Country Boy (£2,650), which utilises a hybrid US/Chinese build process to produce a truly stupendous boutique guitar at a more real-world price.

The post Taylor Gold Label 510e review: “Taylor’s return to the dreadnought is crying out for some big pick energy” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.



This week, the Fretboard Journal’s Sofia Wolfson talks to Tulsa, Oklahoma-based songwriter Ramsey Thornton. Ramsey is a multi-instrumentalist with a love for both banjo and guitar. In fact, he’s one of those rare individuals who boasts a graduate degree in banjo!

We hear all about it and about Ramsey’s forthcoming debut album, I Called It! 

Follow Ramsey here: https://www.instagram.com/ramsey.thornton/

Our next Fretboard Summit takes place August 20-22, 2026, at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. Register today: https://fretboardsummit.org

We are brought to you by Peghead Nation: https://www.pegheadnation.com (Get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription with the promo code FRETBOARD at checkout).

Stringjoy Strings: https://stringjoy.com

Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar: https://mmguitarbar.com

The post Podcast 541: Ramsey Thornton first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Our annual Fretboard Summit is a unique event where we spare no expense. For three days, attendees participate in workshops, panel discussions, jaw-droppingly great concerts and hands-on exhibits, along with one of the world’s largest showcases of modern guitarmaking. It’s like no other public guitar gathering out there.

We are grateful for all the attendees – literally from around the world – who show up to support this weekend. We also want our annual guitar gathering to be as diverse as possible and to inspire the next generation of luthiers, players and students.

With that in mind, we’re pleased to launch the Summit’s inaugural Pay It Forward program, a sponsorship program that will grant full, all-access passes to individuals who want to participate in the Summit but can’t due to financial hardship. (Note: We unfortunately cannot cover airfare, hotel or travel expenses.)

To apply for the program, simply fill out this questionnaire.

Thanks to a generous sponsorship from The Music Emporium, we’ll be granting ten full-access, three-day passes to players, builders, students or content creators in 2026. The Summit is a once-in-a-lifetime weekend where you can meet the leaders of the gear space and some truly inspiring artists. Connections get made in truly impactful ways. We’d love for you to be a part of our community.

Our team will review all the applicants and notify the recipients by May 15, 2o26.

The post Announcing the 2026 Fretboard Summit Pay It Forward Program first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Sometimes song ideas come fully formed, but most of the time, your ideas will take time to come together into a cohesive whole. When you don’t have other musicians to bounce ideas off, Guitar Pro can act as a useful stand in.

In this guide, I’m going to show you how to compose music for other instruments, introduce you to some of Guitar Pro’s intermediate tools and share some tips on how to build the structure of your song. This isn’t a songwriting guide, so I’ll only be using a four bar piece of music to showcase everything. However, we will cover all that’s needed to give you the grounding to how to compose a complete song in Guitar Pro.

Before you continue, if you’ve never used Guitar Pro before, I highly recommend you read our How to tab a basic riff in Guitar Pro feature. I cover the basics there and lay the foundations for where we’ll be continuing in this guide.

How to add accompanying instruments in Guitar Pro

For this guide, I’ve tabbed out a four bar progression playing F# diminished, Bm7 and Em with a “jazzy” rhythm utilising dead notes and hammer-ons. This will be the foundation for showcasing additional instruments, customising sounds and advanced articulation.

You can download the Guitar Pro file so you can hear the rhythm and use this file for your own practice, as well as listening to and editing the lead guitar, bass and drum tracks.

To add a new instrument track, click ‘Track’ in the main menu and ‘Add…’.

Drums

Unlike when tabbing guitar, there’s no set line that a part of the kit must be tabbed on, but I would advise creating a system that makes sense. This is how I organise the kit from top line to bottom:

• First and second lines: Cymbals
• Third line: Hi-Hats
• Fourth line: Toms
• Fifth line: Snare
• Sixth line: Kick

Top tip: Fill an empty bar with sixteenth note rests. I’ve found it gives me more freedom from the beginning for the placement of kick, snare and cymbal fills to compliment the back beat.

To see what number relates to what part of the drumkit press Fn+CMD+F6 (CTRL+F6 on Windows) to bring up the ‘DrumKit View’. You can also find this in the ‘View’ menu. Note that when you click to hear a sample of any of the pieces of the kit, it will add it into the selected bar of your tab.

The key ones to note for your first beat are:

• 35 = Kick
• 38 = Snare
• 44 = Hi-Hat (Closed)
• 46 = Hi-Hat (Open)

Keep your beat simple to start with and ensure it pairs well with your riff. Once you have the core groove locked in, then you can refer to the ‘DrumKit View’ and start embellishing with fills and cymbals.

Bass

The process of tabbing bass is identical to guitar, just with fewer strings (most of the time). Write out whatever feels good for you based on your knowledge and experience with bass guitar. Once you’re more actively tabbing out bass and drum parts, you’ll be better at writing more nuanced parts.

How to customise your instruments’ sound in Guitar Pro

Now that we’ve tabbed out the parts for all of our instruments, we can start to look at refining their individual sounds.

Add a capo to your guitar(s)

Select your instrument track and make sure that ‘Track’ is selected in the ‘Inspector’ column. Click the box where your guitar’s tuning is shown and you’ll open the ‘tuning’ dialog box. At the bottom you can choose to add a capo or partial capo. You can do this at the beginning of a project, but if you do it after the fact there’s a button to ‘adjust the fingering’ so that the notes are transposed correctly.

Change your guitar model, effects and amp

Sticking in the ‘Track’ column, click on the guitar name, which in my example is ‘1. Jazz ES’. This brings up a drop-down menu with the first option being the different styles of your currently selected guitar, as well as the option to change the guitar type or change to a different instrument. There are ‘signature’ sounds for many of the guitar types, so if you’re hunting for something specific, be sure to explore the options available.

Below ‘1. Jazz ES’ you will see symbols of a headstock, amplifier, mixer and stompbox. Clicking this will open up your signal chain. In ‘Soundbank’ you’ll see your guitar and here you can change to a different type of guitar, e.g. L. Paul, Strat, Tele.

Beneath this is your effect chain, which in my case has my amplifier, reverb and EQ. You can tweak the settings or change the amp and pedals in your effect chain to suit your preferences. There are presets built-in to all of them or you can build your sound from scratch.

Top tip: I recommend highlighting a bar or section of music and then going into the ‘Sound’ menu to activate a loop when tweaking the settings, so that you can hear what’s being changed live. When paired with ‘Count-in’ this is really handy for when you’re practising playing along.

Add the ‘human touch’ through interpretation

At the bottom of the ‘Track’ column, each instrument will have an ‘Interpretation’ section. This is a great set of tools to give the playing style some personality. You can dictate when the instrument is played with a pick, fingers or bass slap, and dial in the intensity of palm muting and accentuation.

3. How to tab different articulations

Continuing on from the adding the ‘human touch’, there are so many techniques at play in a single riff. While we looked at the basics in our first guide of this series, here’s some of the more intermediate articulations that I use regularly and how you tab them out.

I’ve included the keyboard shortcuts below, but you can select all of these effects quickly with the ‘Edition Palette’ enabled.

• Up and downstrokes – Press (Shift + U / D) to add an up or downstroke to accurately tab your rhythm playing
• Grace notes – Hitting a note before or after the beat super quickly? Press (G) for a grace note that plays before the beat or (Option+G / CTRL+ALT+G) for grace note(s) on the beat
• Vibrato – Press (V) to add a touch of vibrato to a note or chord
• Staccato – Press (!) when highlighting a note or chord to add a staccato effect. Super handy for those rhythmic stab sections or for plucky lead lines. A staccato note has a • above it in the staff
• Slide in from above/below – When you’re not sliding from a specific note, but want that effect highlight your note or chord, go into Effects > Slide > Slide in from Above / Below based on how you’re playing

Be sure to refer to the Guitar Pro file of this project to see these effects in situ.

Building your song’s structure in Guitar Pro

Whether you’re composing a prog epic or a tight verse-chorus pop anthem, these tools will help add dynamics to your song and make the project easy to navigate.

Use repeat signs

Rather than tabbing out your riff or chord progression each time it’s played, use repeat signs ( [ ) and ( ] ) in the first and final bar to keep your project tidy. You can use alternate endings where the instrumentation changes.

Label your song’s sections

Select a bar, click ‘Section’ in the main menu and then ‘Edit…’ to add a letter and/or name to any section in your song. This will appear both above the staff in the respective bar and along the bottom of the screen.

Pan your instruments to improve the mix

Finding that your two guitar tracks are drowning each other out? Hard pan one to the left and one to the right. You’ll be amazed at what a difference such a small change makes.

Get good at automation

Press F10 and you’ll bring up the ‘Automation’ screen, where you can automate volume, tempo and panning changes throughout your song. These variables can add both personality and dynamics to a song.

Experiment with effects and different instruments

Want to build tension in the intro? Add a couple of bars to the start of your project, duplicate your guitar track and then add a low-pass filter to it, then in your original guitar track, tab the root chord as a whole note, and add a long fade ( < ) or automate a volume swell before the song kicks off.

Maybe your bridge section sounds a bit samey? Ditch the guitar and try out a violin, synth or woodwind instrument and see how that affects the mood of the piece.

In the final part of this guide series, we’ll be looking at how Guitar Pro can streamline the recording process as you take your finished projects to the studio.

The post How to compose a complete song in Guitar Pro – the essential guide appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Music theory is boundless. And even a musician as distinguished and accomplished as Paul McCartney is still exploring nearly 70 years into his illustrious career.

That quest for discovery recently reached an inflection point in the unlikeliest of situations – over a cup of tea with producer Andrew Watt. 

As the story goes, the Beatles legend and the mega-producer met for a casual “exchange of ideas” five years ago, when Macca stumbled upon a chord he couldn’t identify. He began experimenting with note choices, and his inspiration was so profound after coming up with a new three-chord sequence that he ended up writing an entire full-length album.

• READ MORE: “A compelling entry into the world of American-crafted archtops”: Heritage updates its Standard II Collection with new H-575 model

And that album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, is set to arrive 29 May via MPL/Capitol Records. It’s set to bring “Wings-style rock, Beatles-style harmonies, McCartney-style grooves, understated intimacy and melody-driven storytelling – par for the course for Macca, then.

With “no record label pressure and no deadline” The Boys of Dungeon Lane was recorded over the last five years in both Los Angeles and Sussex, to McCartney and Watt’s “own timeline and satisfaction”.

You can listen to the first single from the album, Days We Left Behind, right now:

“This is very much a memory song for me. The album title, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, comes from a lyric in this track. I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind and I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else? 

“It’s just a lot of memories of Liverpool.  It involves a bit in the middle about John and Forthlin Road which is the street I used to live in. Dungeon Lane is near there.  I used to live in a place called Speke which is quite working class.  We didn’t have much at all but it didn’t matter because all the people were great and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much.”

The Boys of Dungeon Lane’s tracklist is as follows:

1. As You Lie There
2. Lost Horizon
3. Days We Left Behind
4. Ripples in a Pond
5. Mountain Top
6. Down South
7. We Two
8. Come Inside
9. Never Know
10. Home to Us 
11. Life Can Be Hard
12. First Star of the Night
13. Salesman Saint
14. Momma Gets By

The Boys of Dungeon Lane is available to preorder now.

The post Paul McCartney found a guitar chord he didn’t recognise while having tea with Andrew Watt – and was so inspired he recorded a new album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Is a new Judas Priest album in the works? It would certainly appear so, according to a brief comment made by guitarist Richie Faulkner in a new interview.

Priest’s most recent album, Invincible Shield, landed in 2024, and it would seem the English quintet are eyeing up a followup. Though his reply is brief, when asked about the status of a potential 20th studio album, Faulkner confirms: “We’ve started recording it.”

• READ MORE: “Sometimes I come off stage, call home and say, ‘I can’t f**king do it’”: Richie Faulkner reveals he suffered a stroke while recovering from aortic aneurysm – but isn’t ready to leave Judas Priest yet

“We were in the studio for a month in February laying the foundation,” he tells Canada’s The Metal Voice [via Blabbermouth]. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that, but I’ve said it!”

That’s all we know for now, and it may be a while before we actually hear any material from the album, but for now, confirmation is good enough for us.

Richie Faulkner joined Judas Priest in 2011, replacing KK Downing. “They’ve been doing it for 50-odd years,” he says. “I’m part of the team now, and it is the crew and management and everyone that pitches together to make that machine roll.

“And I can see how they’ve been doing it for that long. I’ve said to you guys before – they love it. And we’ll do a tour and then we’ll get excited and do an album, and then you get excited for the album and do another tour. So I can see how it happens. And we’re doing another album, and we’ll probably tour that.

Richie Faulkner’s career was put on hold when he suffered an aortic aneurysm while performing onstage with Priest at Louder Than Life Festival in 2021. He subsequently underwent 10-hour emergency open heart surgery and has since recovered.

Despite the years that have passed since, Faulkner recently revealed that he continues to work with a physio “three times a day” to manage the damage the incident caused to his body.

I’ve had a bit of collateral damage on my right side with stuff connected to what happened. So I have to work on that,” he said.

Elsewhere in the new interview, Faulkner touches on the upcoming Ballad of Judas Priest documentary, which chronicles 50 years of Judas Priest.

“It’s really well put together, and it goes through the story of where they started and what they went through and everything like that and talks to different people about Priest’s influence on them. 

“There’s a great bit in it where they go back to, I think it’s a working man’s club in Aston [United Kingdom] or somewhere like that, where they played their first show, and Ian’s [Hill, Judas Priest bassist] in there and he’s sitting down, and it’s still there. And he’s in the club, and you can see the stage where they performed and everything. It’s still there, man. And it’s great, as a fan, to see that stuff. I haven’t seen that stuff before. So it’s really good. When it comes out, you should definitely check it out.”

The post “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that:” Richie Faulkner lets slip update on new Judas Priest album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

[Editor’s note: Heritage Guitars and Guitar.com are both part of the Caldecott Music Group.]

Back in September, Heritage Guitars unveiled its Standard II Collection on its 40th anniversary, bringing a number of upgrades to its celebrated Standard Series. The Standard II Collection kicked off with the refreshed H-150, followed in November by a trio of electric guitars, the H-150 P90, H-535 and H-530.

Now, the Kalamazoo-based brand is continuing that momentum with the introduction of the latest Standard II model, an updated version of the original hollowbody Standard H-575.

• READ MORE: Ace Frehley’s number-one Les Paul headlines upcoming auction at Julien’s – and could fetch half a million dollars

Offered as a “compelling entry into the world of American-crafted archtops”, the Standard II Collection H-575 arrives with refined aesthetics following the Standard Series’ H-575, as well as newly unveiled Heritage Custom Shop 225 Standard Archtop Humbuckers.

These pickups are specifically voiced for modern jazz, prioritising “clarity and dynamic response”, with 42 AWG poly wire and Alnico 2 magnets with chrome covers “perfectly complementing” the guitar’s hollowbody resonance.

Crafted at the brand’s legendary 225 Parsons Street facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Standard II Collection H-575 sports a new headstock veneer with the Heritage logo for a “more refined and elevated aesthetic”, a standard C neck profile for a “comfortable and effortless” playing experience.

Priced at $4,499 and available via the Heritage Guitars website and authorised Heritage dealers, the brand says the Standard II H-575 “stands confidently” beside its more elite archtop offerings, including the Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-575 and H-717.

The Standard II Collection has already made a strong impression on the Guitar.com team; in November, we checked out the Standard II H-150, which has seen the brand shift somewhat from its philosophy of vintage revivalism to something a little more contemporary. In our review, we gave the guitar a 9/10, praising its quality tonal palette, useful array of switching options and comfortable light weight.

Will the Standard II H-575 measure up the same way? You can learn more at Heritage Guitars.

The post “A compelling entry into the world of American-crafted archtops”: Heritage updates its Standard II Collection with new H-575 model appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.