Name: Nuno Bettencourt
Born:September 20, 1966
Occupation: Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer
Instrument: Guitar
Band: Extreme, Population 1, Dramagods, Mourning Widows
Associated Acts: The Satellite Party, Rihanna, Steel Panther,
Guitar Wars, Generation Axe, Steven Tyler,
Aerosmith, Dweezil Zappa, Alter Bridge
BIO
Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt (born September 20, 1966) is a Portuguese-born American guitarist, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist of the Boston rock band Extreme.
He has since recorded a solo project called Schizophonic as well as with bands he founded including Mourning Widows, Population 1, DramaGods, The Satellite Party (headed by Jane’s Addiction‘s then-former frontman and Lollapalooza co-founder Perry Farrell), and then reunited with Extreme to record new music and tour.
Washburn Guitars sells a line of Nuno Bettencourt custom guitars.[1][2]
Best Known For
Nuno Bettencourt is known for his band’s single, More than words. He also played guitar for Janet Jacksons’s “Black Cat” and Toni Braxton’s “Shadowless”.
Personal Life
Bettencourt was married to Baby Animals lead singer Suze DeMarchi from 1994 until 2013. They had two children together, born in 1996 and 2002. The couple separated in 2009.
Guitar and Gears
In December 1990, Washburn Guitars unveiled the Washburn N4 Nuno Bettencourt Signature Series – a series of Bettencourt-designed guitars.
The Nuno Bettencourt models are flagshipped by the American hand-made Washburn N4. The Washburn N4 guitar is a small reverse headstock super-strat which features the unique Stephen’s Extended Cutaway neck joint for easy access to the higher frets. It also contains Bill Lawrence USA and Seymour Duncan pickups, and a Floyd Rose licensed tremolo. The production budget model of this guitar which is built in China is known as the N2 and features a standard bolt-on neck. The N3 was a short run Korean reproduction of the Washburn N4 using Washburn stock pickups. The original N2 and N3 guitars were prototype guitars built for Nuno. The N2 lacking the Stephen’s Extended Cutaway and the N3 using a Bill Lawrence L500X in the bridge rather than the Seymour Duncan 59. Other models include The N5 and N6. Bettencourt has also endorsed several Washburn acoustic models, as well as a line of ‘set-neck’ electric guitars including the P-Series which was released in various models with a more retro, deep cutaway style.
– Homemade guitar with Schecter body and Warmoth neck (used during first Extreme album)
– Takamine acoustic guitar (first Extreme album)
– Washburn N4 electric guitar (A Duncan ’59 and a Lawrence L-500 in the bridge)
– Washburn N4ESA
– Washburn N5 electric guitar
– Washburn N6 electric guitar
– Washburn N8 electric guitar
– Washburn P4 electric guitar
– Washburn EA-45, EA20, and EA22 acoustic guitars
– Washburn N24
– Wahsburn N2
– Mouradian Custom Guitar
– EVH D-Tuna Drop D system
Guitar Amplifiers
– Custom made Nuno Bettencourt Randall amps and cabinets (what he has been using as of 2008 along with Marshalls):
– Randall NBKing100 amp head and NB King combo amps
– Randall NB412 cabinets
– ADA MP-1 Preamp
– ADA Power amp
– Fender Vibroverb
– Fender Twin Reverb
– Marshall TSL amp heads (3 channel)
– 69′ Marshall cabinets
– Hughes and Kettner TriAmp heads
– Marshall JMP head
– Marshall JCM head
– Soldano amps (various stories floating around – Soldano Series II Super Lead 60, SLO100….)
Guitar Effects
– Boss ME-5 Multi Effects and more currently, Boss GT-8
– Boss DD-3 Digital Delay
– Boss LS-2 Line Selector
– Boss MC-1
– MXR Phase 90
– MXR Phase 100
– Heil Talkbox
– Hughes & Kettner Tubeman
– Boss PS-3 Pitch Shifter/Delay
– Digitech XP-100 Whammy pedal
– Boss GE-7 Equalizer
– Boss OC-3 Octave
– Demeter Amplification THE TREMULATOR
– Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere
– Damage Control Womanizer Pure Class A Distortion (he’s sponsored)
– Rat pedals
Guitar Strings and Picks
– Dean Markley Nuno Bettencourt Signature guitar strings NB-LTHB gauges .010 – .013 – .017 – .028 – .038 – .052
– Dean Markley Nuno Bettencourt Signature guitar strings NB-CL gauges .009 .011 .016 .026 .036 .046
These strings are a pretty close match to the one’s he made:
– Fender heavy picks
junatanisalive 