Nuno Bettencourt's Main N4 Washburn & Strings + Picks

The guitar legend's tech John Thayer goes over the components and characteristics that make up Nuno's iconic Wasburn instrument.

Nearly 40 years ago, Nuno Bettencourt walked into Mouradian Guitars Co in Boston where Pat Badger was working and they formed a bond that would change their worlds. In March of 2024, Pat Badger and Nuno Bettencourt, of multi-platinum band Extreme, along with their tech, John Thayer, invited PG’s John Bohlinger to talk through their current rigs.

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#guitar #rigrundown #guitarist #extreme #pedalboard #bassguitar

[eMKayJR]

This is actually NOT the Washburn N4 that Nuno has been using on most Extreme albums (including P***ograffiti), which is the one that you can see him using up until sometime after Saudades de Rock album (there is also a video of Nuno having a photoshoot with his main). The story is that Nuno has struggled to find the right replacement to his main N4 guitar, which after decades of touring and Nuno's passionate playstyle has withered quite visibly - nevertheless he continued to use it as he couldn't find the next best in slot that played exactly the same (including exact same models). The situation changed when he purchased another early Davies N4 from a fan - that guitar became the 4N (named to diffrentiate it from N4), which you can see in the video and which has finally sent his main to retirement. The 4N has a nice origin story - it is an early Stephen Davies era Washburn N4 and was purchased by another kid, Joe King, in the early 90s, who then made several modifications to it (including sanding the neck). It also has peculiar hardware, like Kahler trem and nut, which were used at Washburn along with Floyd - likely whatever was avalaible at the shop at the time. The guitar was sold after 14 years and later finally made it's way to Nuno - the whole story is documented in a Youtube video: "The Untold History of Nuno Bettencourt's Washburn 4N (1991 to 2005)".

[studioatotonilco]

If the Floyd is still in a floating setting, I'm very impressed about the ability to stay in tune with the D-Tuna on/off. On every guitars I own, because of the strings tension changing, I must have the Floyd Rose sets flush only (or using a Tremo-no) to keep the guitar in tune when using the D-Tuna.

[MiguelMartinez-ritb]

I have Davies with the Kahler. Ordered it from a dealer in 1992 and was actually pissed that it didn’t have a Floyd and a different neck. Didn’t know how rare they would be. I’ve had it for 32 years now.

[scirasco]

Not good when your roadie doesnt know the guitars he works on, in the neck its a 59 duncan

[williamh]

Too much a premadonna to do his own interviews? Man this guy really let all u fans blowin him go to his head… he hasnt had a hit in over 30yrs…