Washburn USA Nuno Bettencourt N4-NUNO VINTAGE Guitar, Ebony Fretboard, Natural

Player's Perspective

This is Extreme guitarist and renowned musical director Nuno Bettencourt's famed N4 signature axe in all its glory! The natural finish on this guitar lets the instrument itself and its build quality shine brightly.

Light, resonant and lightning fast, players here at the shop are extremely impressed by how quickly this guitar disappears - after just a few moments of playing, your focus becomes completely on the music. The unique body shape and custom contours help this guitar mold into your body as you play. As you move up the neck, it feels like you've hanging out with a metronome  - the string feel has a distinct response that caters to fast runs and intricate fretting.

The neck heel of this guitar is a thing of beauty. It's a 5-bolt Stephen's Extended Cutaway, a unique design that rids itself of the big hunk of wood you usually find where the neck meets the body. Think of it as a bolt-on with the upper register feel of a neck-thru design. Rounding out the playability aspects, the Floyd Rose 1000 Series Original tremolo will let you dive bomb to your heart's content without sending the guitar out of tune.

The tone is hot and biting but it always remains musical and detailed, no matter the amount of drive or effects. The neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan '59, and the bridge is a Bill Lawrence L-500. This combo allows you to run the gamut from high-gain shred to warm, bluesy tone. 

This N4-NUNO is an absolute must for the Nuno fan, but it'll also be a welcome addition for any player who simply wants a potent, well-built fast-playing axe capable of pure guitar acrobatics.

Details

Nuno Bettencourt, born in Portugal and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, grew up in a very musical family. In his teenage years he began playing drums, bass and keyboards, but ultimately settled on guitar as his primary instrument. Since then he has become one of the world’s greatest guitarists, who draws from an eclectic variety of styles and influences and is a tremendously technical and adept player, with an acute sense of rhythm. Most famous for his role in Boston-area group Extreme, in which Bettencourt recorded five CDs and delivered the hits “More Than Words” and “Hole Hearted”, he has also released a solo CD, formed the groups Mourning Widows and Population 1 (which eventually became DramaGods), and was featured in Satellite Party (formed by Perry Farrell). Although they had disbanded in 1995, in 2007, Extreme reunited and headlined Washburn’s 125th Anniversary Party at Winter NAMM 2008. For 2009-2013 Nuno joined Grammy Award winning R&B artist Rihanna as music director and lead guitarist on her world tour, playing to hundreds of thousands of fans across Europe and the U.S. 2014 – 2015 also saw an Extreme tour commemorating the 25th anniversary of Pornograffitti.

In order to develop the N Series with Washburn, Bettencourt utilized his extensive knowledge of the guitar and designed each model with an extremely fast neck that allows for easy access to higher frets via the Stephen’s® Extended Cutaway on some models. Depending on the model, a Washburn or a Duncan® ’59 neck pickup & a Lawrence® L-500 in the bridge make this reverse headstock marvel wail. These super road axes are the gateway to total creativity, just ask Nuno and the thousands of musicians that play them.