Get Total Guitar for iOS devices, Kindle Fire and Android: bit.ly/1NQOana Walls of amps! Shred heroics! Flame-patterned 12-strings! TG says ‘Yes, yes’ to Nuno, as things get a little Extreme...
Few years ago he played Local club in Charlotte and he and Gary stood outside the bus for hours till every cd, shirt, guitar was signed. He was very cool.
Man this guy is an incredible guitarist. I remember first hearing of Nuno in the mid 80s when they were still playing clubs in Boston. The guy hasn't age at all, he looks the way does now in the 80s.
It's probably the accent. When (most) Brazilians, Portugueses, Spanish, Mexicans and etc speak English, they tend to sound stoned. (me being a Brazilian)
Nuno always comes across so well. You get the feeling he's just a really decent and kindly down to earth guy. He really is one of the greats in rock guitar, and his style hasn't dated as much as some others because it is unique and quite timeless. Always enjoy hearing him interviewed even though you always get the impression he doesn't much like talking about himself.
Amazing guitar player, but amazing musician, song writer and human. Finally met him last week after waiting 25+ years! Very humble and down to earth then ripped out one incredible solo after another at the gig. Love all his solo stuff too (Schizophonic, Dramagods, Population 1, Mourning Widows etc) where we writes, plays, records & produces most of the material. Unbelievable and very underrated.
That was funny what Nuno said in the last part about plugging into Eddie's rig, and I'm assuming he was talking about Eddie Van Halen. And the way he said he thought he'd get to sound like Eddie using his rig, but didn't cause he sounded like himself, like it was a bad thing cause Bettencourt sounds and is awesome. Sure, Eddie's always the king among fret meister's but Nuno shreds...big time. Rock on Nuno!!
he is always gonna be one of my top 3 guitar players of all time. i like his simplistic approach.. few signature guitars... few effects... thats it. He doesnt have a lot of fancy gears but his playing is very diverse. Most virtuosos are like that, just like Ericn Johnson.
Love the Eddie story and to add to what Nuno is saying, if you watch one of the Video's of EVH demonstrating his amps, he says the exact same thing "you create your own tone"
yeah, it took me a while also. Initially I sounded like "me" with my guitars and setup, then when I thought I evolved. I sounded like "me" with every guitar and every setup.....Now I am just working on liking "me"......
Im no fan of extreme, but i am of nuno bettencourt( sounds stupid, but its the way it is!), one of the most under rated guitarists ever. Glad to see him still touring, hope he does a solo tour, that comes close to my area, as i really could'nt go to a extreme gig!!, i would never be able to live that one down amongst my friends!!lol!. All the best.
Nunos solos is like a little world inside the flat songs of extreme. What Nuno did with Extreme is amazing, he made his band big only because his guitars! I'm sorry for Gary Cherone but... come on... this melodies... this performances... no fckng chance to do ir with out Nuno
I have the same issue with guitar knobs and switches in the way. I remove the tone knob and move the volume pot back to the tone spot. Most guitar manufacturers insist on putting that volume knob exactly in the way.
Awesome! That bit about plugging into EVH's amp is funny though. I remembered Eddie said Billy Corgan tried out his amp and his guitar and was also disappointed. IMO, Nuno's tone is perfect for his style of mixing rhythm and lead playing together.
Saw Extreme at Wolverhampton civic in the UK on 3 sides tour playing to 200 people in a 2000 seat venue. They played their hearts out as if they were playing a sold out 10000 seat show. Only other time I was at a show like that was Frank Marino at Birmingham Odeon and he played to 50 people in a 2500 venue and STILL did a full 2 and a half hour set with no support act. It must be a real come down playing to a small crowd if your used to playing to 10000 plus.
If I was Nuno I'd be happy to sound like him even through Eddie's rig...That's waaaaay better than sounding like, say, me perhaps lol...Nuno is awesome.
It's, at least, impressive that a guitar monster like Nuno uses a Boss GT-8. Makes me think that the quality of the sound is more about the musician than the equips.
Yogen Grg dude, the sound is really in the amp 50% of the time gear wise, go for tubes, honestly if you're amp(playing aside) isn't that good, pedals/multi-effects you're using would sound horrible as some pedals work better if your amp is also better. Greg howe uses digitech rp300 before, with a killer amp which i forgot, aside from his great playing.
I noticed his back uo had the bill lawrence usa in where his others had the bill lawrence B+B (wilde). So the mystery of all that business put me if buying either. Knowing he uses both is reassuring.
Amazing player, and down to earth guy... Excellent advice.. you don't need a million pedals and $5000 guitars to sound good. Its all in the player, not the gear.
+tsafanyoh Actually, a N4 is nothing cheap. And it is a super guitar in what regards quality. Also his amps are super high end. The thing is, high end does not mean 1 million buttons and control knobs, its just quality stuff to get you through safely.
+Renan Beltrão well i agree, a simple tube amp with quality parts will always give the best tone. I have a custom shop N4 and a quality Les Paul is easily double the price.
Magic of the brand, man. Gibson is expensive by being Gibson, and Washburn... is just Washburn. Plus, Les Paul finish is much more time consuming. N4 is very simple regarding the looks, so it's also much cheaper to make it.
Matthew Collis He isn’t wrong. Gear is cool, and excellent gear will help an excellent artist create great sounds, but guitarists can be the worst kinds of materialists when it comes to equipment.
Never would have guessed he used a GT-8...I wonder if its just out front or if he uses the 4 cable method...I would love to ditch my pedals and just go with a multi unit. But I've always assumed it wouldnt sound very good and take away from my tone
Anyone know what gauge string Nuno uses? They sell the N4 with 9’s on it- but I thought I heard him at one point say he uses 10-52…..thought I’d ask this forum
1:18 totally. For me anyway, I've learned that NOTHING needs to be in the way (even where his vol knob is is too close). That way, all your strumming cannot hit a switch or knob and screw you up during play.
Brandon Thomas maybe. But for me, my next guitar will be parts I buy and the exact locations of switches and knobs will be decided by me and most likely it'll be in that lower right area BELOW the bridge and BEHIND the bridge. So, if you like constant switching like Malmsteen does, that prob won't work for you. I don't like a tone control either so I'll have a 3 way switch, volume, coil tap switches and probably out of phase via pull pot of the volume. I don't play live so I don't need fast switching. I just need my damn picking area clean of debris! :)
+TruthSurge Warmoth is a great company. Every player who has been playing for a while likes certain things. Myself, I got fat fingers, so I like a rather wide neck with jumbo frets. I like a good radius on the fretboard. I like a hardtail, no floyd rose, and I would wire the pickups for 1 center single coil, 2 humbuckers with coil split, and phase switchs. They can make the parts anyway you want, with a variety of diffent woods or body styles,
Yes me it depends what he's playing or I should say doin. I love trumpets even more now for let's say the many uses they can give. Nuno and Steve what beautiful gifts they have shared that will last forever in me and many others who know what I mean
As no frills as a rock star can get man, I need a little more style in my guitars that a cutting board look but if you can shred like Nuno it is actually an appropriate look.
+hazor777 I had to watch this again to see what I meant. I guess I didn't make it clear that Eddie didn't age well. Nuno is an awesome guitarist, but I love his acoustic guitar better. I apologize for not making myself clear. Lol, it looks like Nuno is still in his early thirties. Have a good night.
The Randalls are cool looking but he never uses them live. He always has a Marshall head behind them. If you watch him playing live those Randalls are always on the clean channel sitting there for show.Saw him again recently playing Pornograffitti live and they wheeled out his amps and sitting right behind them is his marshall head like always.
+schlagdog He probably did for a while. But you know the competition is tough among amp makers. And musicians are always on a quest for "that perfect tone" Good tube amps are fucking expensive nowadays
I am allways fascinated how many of the "big guys" use the BOSS Stompboxes..I mean the Boss pedals are just all over the place..every guitar player has at least one..from the bloody beginner up to super pros
Slears play boss effects in cheap amps, i think you would never appreciate it, but play any effects(not just boss) in a high end amp like this type of randall, any pedal brand would really sound more amazing.
5:04 Your playing style will always sound like you no matter what you play through. The TONE will always sound like the gear being used, no matter who is using it.
Very true about Eddie, I've seen people that buy Thousands of dollars of pedals and EVH 5150's, and STILL DONT sound like Eddie! Meanwhile, I run an old 70's Peavey, distortion pedal, and Jackson Dinky and I can get a BETTER sound, closer to Eddies, haha. It's all in the technique and how your brain is wired. Eddies mind was wired differently, just his offset timing, squezing notes in between other notes, just Everything was backwards/random with Eddie. If you don't have That, you'll never sound like him, period.
Please don't crucify me, but I've never known who this guy is until now (heard the name, but never bothered to find out who he was and landed on this video while investigating the ProCo Rat pedal) but he seems like a really swell guy. I like the story about plugging into EVH's gear. I used to know a guy that had a rehearsal room next to a famous classic rocker that had a similar story: Asked to jam on said classic rock musician's rig, still sounded like himself. He asks this notorious guitarist to play through his own rig (keeping in mind the other guy I'm referring to is a metalhead that slams a Rectifier with a Tube Screamer) and sure as shit, it still sounds like freakin' this other classic rocker.
He "forgot" to mention the modded Marhall head he uses instead of the Randalls live (at least) on most of the venues... Nice insight nevertheless. Thsnk you TotalGuitar
Ok. I'll take your work for it but haven't even heard of that in years and he never used it the 3 times I've seen them over the years and was in back twice.
I've got an NBKing and its kinda squishy sounding like an Orange Rockerverb. Definitely his tone on their live dvd along with green back speakers breaking up everywhere.
Indeed awesome! Love the way he does not care absolutely about boutique pedals this, effects that, racks, diferent amps and shit.... what really cares is his playing style.... lol
