Nuno Bettencourt on Why He Doesn't Use Pedals | Wong Notes Podcast 

Agree with the EVH comments. The early Eddie guitar sound is what we fell in love with

I always feel I'm in the presence of greatness whenever Nuno speaks. I had no idea he doesn't use pedals although i did wonder how he gets such a staggeringly good sound, you feel it in your bones. It's really all him, no 6 foot pedal board, pretty much a lead and an amp. This guy is one awesome talent.

It's funny, when I was a kid I thought Eddie was doing everything with his fingers which made me try to emulate his sound with my fingers and pick. Turns out he was using a lot of MXR gear, but it made my guitar playing much more vocal. Ironically, I've just got a chorus pedal and it sounds great...

There was a LOT going on with EVH earliest rig with pedals, EQs, load boxes and FX. In recently-released 1978-9 interview, EVH talks about Jose modding his amps that included swapping out transformers! That being said, NUNO makes perfect sense, and his tried and true methods fuckin WORK!!!! NUNO RULES!!!!!!

Well said from a legendary guitar player

While I don't disagree for certain genres, it's a bit like piano vs keyboards. With effects, the guitar can become something else entirely. Say what you will about The Edge. Every studio cat emulated his delay tricks afterwards. And those riffs wouldn't exist without effects, period. But yeah, I love all the nuances, articulations, micro-bends and everything that makes a guitarist sound like one.

See, a man after my own heart. Sure, effects add so many more options, but there's SO much to be gained by eliminating options.

spoken like a true guitar virtuoso

This is interesting... My Rig for the last 5 years as been a Charvel San Dimas, a Bugera 6262-212 and a Behringer Vintage Delay! And I'm totally fine with it! Effects can help expand your imagination and there is nothing wrong with it; it all depends on what you want... 🤘🤩

I agree to a point. I happen to absolutely love Eddie’s 90s tone, especially on the Balance record. I don’t think Eddie could ever hide his playing haha. But dynamics don’t seem to be as important these days. Everything is so heavily compressed, and while for people like The Edge, it works great, it doesn’t feel the same playing to me. I feel like I lose the guitar like Nuno was saying.

Some great points made.

Nuno just has it figured out. Good stuff!

great take. i'd say that effects tend to be more useful for rymthmn or creating an ambience of some sort. lead playing or solo sections inherently have a more room for expresiveness imo. the simpler the lead, the more an effect can make sense. for what nuno is doing, the drier the better. the nuances need to be present. obv like he said, throw some delay and verb on it to create space. either way, great conversation

History will write Nuno into it as one of the foremost musician/guitarists of all time. It goes beyond his obvious prowess on the instrument and into his feel, emotion and ability to build a climax to every song he gets his mind dug into. He is a clearcut genius.

I've only seen a few clips of Nuno playing live but he's obviously a very knowledgeable and skilled player. Guitarists like him have philosophical ideas worth hearing. 1:55 His attitude on delay

Always loved this philosophy, I wanna sound like me on any amp and any guitar. Only use a wah and a gain pedal for some live stuff. Really makes your playing cleaner as well, no pedals to muddy up your sound and cover up mistakes.

I love using pedals because I love the soundscapes. Then again, I'm not a virtuoso guitarist. If I were, I'd be playing acoustic jazz.

Completely agree...8 think he's saying just don't drown yourself of the sound in gimmicks...I personally like a few effects, they're fun....but there's a line

Totally agree. I could definitely live with a Delay and Wah.

He spent 2 minutes knocking pedals, processing, and modulation effects, but then clearly contradicted his entire rant by stating that he uses delay, and then stated that modulation can be beautiful sounding. Take it with a grain of salt guys. Chase whatever tone appeals to your ears. Nuno is great but this is just a humble brag about him not relying on drenched guitar tones to sound objectively good.

"Delay is different because it enhances what you've done already." Damn that's pretty deep. Guy's even a virtuoso speaking!

Tell that to Gilmour, The Edge, Alex Lifeson, etc. There a place for effects

Agreed! Same with organic sounding drums too!

Nuno sounds great through any amp. My favourite tone was when he used the Soldano SL60 used on 3 Sides and Punchline.

This guy has been around forever, but didnt get recognition until his latest solo was hyped up by every major guitar influencer on youtube.

I totaly agree with him. A cranked amp is my only effect - the rest - you have to do with your fingers! And Nuno surely knows what to do with his fingers!💪🤘

What an interesting clip! Piano player here. I resonated with this in a different area. Whenever I play a keyboard or a keys/piano plug-in, no matter how good it is, it’s simply not the same as an actual, beautiful tuned and regulated grand piano ( or Rhodes or clav or organ…) what Nuno said about pedals, somehow, getting in the way, of your sound, is how I feel whenever I play, using a keyboard or a plug-in instead of the real thing. Any other keyboard players feel that way? Thanks Nuno for your amazing musicianship and thanks Cory for this podcast:).

I love a proper use of an octavia and leslie speaker

You play and use what you like. It's as simple as that.

All deference to Nuno -- he's great. I'm just thinking though that he uses lots of distortion, and I'd swear he uses reverb on some of his solos. He probably uses what's built into his amp, but distortion and reverb are effects.

Sweet validation 👍🏻🤘🏻

Jimi Hendrix used pedals that’s good enough for me👍🎸

My Ibanez es 175 straight into the Marshall combo. Rock Candy.

I like pedals. They can provide you with a color and inspiration you can’t get from guitar and amp alone. But I can also get what he’s saying about an effect overtaking your town. Modulation effects can be a love it or hate it thing. And there are some great pedals out there that can give you wide ranges when it comes to those effects, from subtle to extreme. I love a great clear chorus sound with as little warble as I can get. Flangers and phasers feel a bit too strong for me but have their uses. There are some amazing overdrives and distortions out there as well. They will change your tone but in my case with my amps make it far better than anything I can get with amp alone

nuno literally has a pedal board with a GT10 for delay. a fuzz face, octaver and some other stuff. but his gain comes from his signature amp.

Extreme’s Waiting for the Punchline album has the greatest “plug and play” guitar amp tone of all time, and really well recorded. Superb stuff.

I definitely get what he’s saying. I thing engineers and sound guy like things that compress our tone.

Pedals are kool very inspirational 👍🎸

I think it is just a limitation. They said that when people started playing electric guitars, when Bob Dylan went out with the Band, they said he lost that direct connection of himself as an artist. But even an acoustic guitar, it is not direct. Even someone just singing Acapella into a mic, is not direct or more emotional. It is just limitations that people create in their mind, and then separate from and think they are real in themselves. It is, of course, a really subjective thing of what a "good, pure sound" is. I make sounds based on the song I am doing, not on making morality rules on what is a good, pure, direct sound.

Nuno still uses the BOSS GT-8.

I used to feel that way. But i got bored of only having two sounds. I need pedals or I’m bored

Brilliant players such Andy summers and Trevor Rabin, make use of effects so as to add textures with intent to create a particular mood.

100% agree!!

I could not agree more, and for all the reasons Nuno lists. And if you play with just your fingers, you'll make the creativity, tonal changes, rhythm and picking techniques right there on the fretboard. Delay is the exception as it is a very specific effect. And I agree - not an absolute. Just works for me.

I get the idea, but Eddie was a bad example - even Van Halen I was drenched in reverb, echoplex and phase90. He talks a lot about chorus so I'm inclined to think he is referring to the fact that everybody used chorus to death back in the 80s and also the micropitch delay to copy the "steve lukather bradshaw rig tone". HM

He is Just right, when the amp is good its you and your guitar!

I use a handful of pedals - (a fuzz, a wah, a delay) but even that feels pretty minimal these days. Sometimes I see a young band and the guitar player is dancing on a dozen different pedals and the bassist is dancing on a half dozen but every tune sounds different like a different band, its really hard to pin down a "sound". -- Vs a Brian May, or a Angus Young, Billy Gibbins or whoever; their tone is unmistakable - its their hands on their instrument almost straight into their amps. Roll up a bit for solos roll down for rhythm; maybe switch pickups but that's kind of it. Old School.

The key thing in his comments is ‘when you use them wrong.’ He is not against effects full stop. The difference between chorus and delay is really just some milliseconds…modulated delay is really just long form chorus. I think there is arguably more immediacy straight in, but there is still plenty going on EQ wise and as regards transients when it comes to pickups, preamps, amp tone stacks, phase inverter, power section, speaker cabs. ‘I don’t use any EQ.’ Yeah, but you double mic…that’s EQ. (And FWIW I love double miking and that particular combo.)

Yep hes bang on

I recorded a song for a music library and they said wow the production is really great in this song, good job. Which I replied, I didn't do anything, no reverb or effects of any kind, funny how that works sometimes.

As a non-musician, I find this very interesting!

The only pedal I really use occasionally is Wah (thanks to SRV and Hendrix), no more Metal Zones, Delay, Echo, Doubles, Synth, Tube Screamers, etc... Just direct clean and distortion from the amp itself. It's refreshing to hear Nuno say this about pedals.

I have a few pedals on my board but 9 times out of 10 I have no pedals on. it's basic guitar to tuner to noise gate to amp. Some guitar players get so wrapped up in pedals and gear. At some point you have to play. I agree with Nuno about Eddie's sound but, I love the sound of carnal knowledge and balance. Nuno has always been in my top 5 guitar players.

What is the album he is saying he played for Steve Via?

Shots fired, Josh! (Kidding! Kind of.)

I have always dug Will Swan's creative use of pedals, but I do generally agree with Nuno's overall sentiment.

I’ve always loved anything raw. I love simple.

100% agree with him.and heres the hard part Without pedals,you dont get ,Pinkfloyd,zeppelin, and The police.but hes rught,imho. Your hands should dictate whats coming out of your amp. Dire straits and Metallica proved that. But then we wouldnt have U2.

We can’t all record cranked amp tones on a daily basis

I dunno. If you use them right, you get Steve Stevens. I think it’s a skill like anything else.

I love pedals. To me it's like a different guitar tuning. it just boosts creativity. No right or wrong here.

I agree with Nuno. There comes a point when the tone becomes over saturated from too many effects. Basic effects are still cool though.

Nuno's was right about that two person he'd mentioned, Page and May. That two persons guitar tone is incomparable. But always don't get it wrong we do need a help of the guitar pedal/effects sometimes

While it might not be my choice of words I get what he is saying. One of the strange things about guitarists, specially electric ones is that they don’t work on tone production. Trumpet players play long tones and work on it, violinists work on their sound and so do woodwind players. Electric guitarists nowadays want to approach it by buying the new pedal or magic gizmo that will make it better, and there is the next thing and the next. Sound starts with the guitarist. Where you pluck the string, the angle, the preparation or no preparation of the attack, the direction, angle. Is it played with a pick? What kind of pick? Is it fingerstyle? With nails or without? Is the fretting hand relaxed or over pressing? Are you muting the notes unrelated to the chord changes? My point is that there is much to do from the side of technique alone to produce a sound. Of course if we are talking electric guitar then which guitar into which amp? How is it set? I am not personally against effects but to me they are just that. Unless one is going for a synth or heavily modulated sound the rest of the processing I view the rest of signal processing as enhancement.

Curious what kind pedal he's really talking about in here ? I guess he was talking about conpressor or pre processor stuff not post fx.

yea thanks nuno for share ring

This is exactly why AI created music will never replace music emotion created by human hands.

Nuno Shreddin’Court

Plug and play musician. I love that.

Interesting. Cool

I agree. Guitar straight into amp and just f’n rock n roll it. I know most use pedals but I’m a straight in kinda guy cuz it’s less headaches. The amp and the guitar more than enough knobs on them already

I use one RAT I got in early 80's and that's it. I like to go from distorted to clean without going to the amp. Nothing against pedal boards but I dopn't want them.

I played out for over 20 years. I never used pedals. I'd like to give the same excuse as Nuno. But mostly I just didn't like dealing with extra gear.

🖤🧡

“Except delay” lol

Amen. The Tone Gods know that everything is in your fingers. Nuno, EVH and many others just "feel their guitar and amp". I agree that delay is useful; we'd never have "Cathedrals" without it. Go back and listen to Blues Saraceno's "Hairpick" album; best tone ever recorded IMHO. No effects except for delay in one song.

❤nuno❤

I “like” chicken, “love” it with Frank’s red hot on it. That being said…my next purchase will be an EVH chorus.

Gary Rossington same thing.

I agree, pedals suck tone. I experiment with wood types in cabs, pine cabs, different speakers. Different guitars, even premium cables. The most articulate sound has no pedals. Modulation effects it's almost like turning a guitar into a keyboard. It has it's place and time for some songs but 90% of the time i do not want any pedals.

Good comment.

Interesting

I have very few pedals and when I use one I use only one at a time, they're not always patched together on a permanent pedal board. And when I don't need it I don't leave it in the circuit relying on the true bypass, I plug the guitar straight into the amp with the shortest possible cable, 1.5m or 3m. And with a pedal it's always 1.5m plus 1.5m to keep losses to a minimum. Yeah, the raw sound of bare guitar and distortion is what feels best.

But Ed had a bunch of pedals in front of his Marshall the whole time.

Brian May's signature tones involve pedals....

Tell that to The Edge. Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Long time ago a real musician told me if you can get a good sound with the most basic equipment, you have talent

Lindo voz maravilhosa te amo meu eterno rei te amo pra sempre amor da minha vida ❤ ❤ ❤

Depends on style music !! If I play clean melodies, then a pedal or two is nice !! However, if I'm playing classic 70s rock, then just an amp and guitar !!! My JTM45s in conjunction with my guitar volume usage is all needed !! I once had an impressive rack system in the 80s, and while on stage, the system just died !! Me and my drummer was troubleshooting all over the place while the comments were flying around in the auditorium of like 1k plus !! Oh Brother !! The band switched over to all acoustic, which surprisingly went extremely well !! Ever since that night , I went with two of the same amp heads and guitars !! I'm a prolific guitar player , but if the sound system dies, then I'm just another person standing around on stage !! 😢

I read some years ago about his gear on Guitar Mag and he mentioned an effects pedal that he was using for a lot of years so i´m not sure about the veracity of what he´s declaring here. The only album i hear more "raw" or "plug & play" is definitely "Waiting For The Punchline".

Gary Moore was so great at this. He really played with his hands an heart. No fuss, no gadgets. Just a high quality guitar, a decent sounding amp and his unparalleled craftsmanship. It's archaic, organic, and goes right under the audience's skin. Same with Angus Young.

Totally agree with this aprouch. I had been playing years when I finally broke down and bought and ART 2000 rack and pedal system. I spent two years exploring and chasing a sound. I end up getting rid of it spending to much time on the box and not on my hands and fingers. You can create almost any FX you want out side of few extremes. Pun

He's mostly talking about using modulation effects for riffs and solo breaks, guys. At least, from the context of his own use of pedals that has to be what he's talking about.

Yeah totally!!Amp distortion is greater than any pedal. Any overdrive,distortion pedal just ruins the amps organic sound or I haven’t yet tried a good overdrive or distortion pedal yet.

He is using slight distortion only from the AMp

LOL. Over on the right I see videos about Nuno's peadboards.

I thought i was weird lol. Im a plug straight in the head ,turn the gain to 4.5, add a little compression and im good to go.

He uses a delay in flight if the wounded bumblebee. Or the sound guy does😉

I don't think any player should constrain themselves just to their preferred sound, break out, experiment and see what unfolds, it may be good or bad but not finding that out is a loss

Obviously very subjective, but I have to wholeheartedly disagree on this one. Some of my favorite players are the ones who can creatively use pedals and fx. They’re like colors on a palette and can create moods otherwise not possible and lead to some really cool spontaneous moments that can’t be easily recreated, if at all. Not to mention, the end of his “Rise” solo is entirely processed to sound more like a synth lol.