Nuno Bettencourt was spotted playing a mystery guitar at Back to the Beginning – is he about to launch his own guitar brand?

Nuno Bettencourt
(Image credit: Nuno Bettencourt Instagram)

Back to the Beginning was tailor-made to be full of eye-opening moments and unlikely collaborations, but for eagle-eyed guitarists, Nuno Bettencourt added his own intrigue to the day’s events by taking to the stage with a mystery electric guitar.

The Extreme maestro played a starring role in Tom Morello’s All-Stars supergroup, taking on Bark at the Moon and a huge range of other hits as he proved to be the event's MVP. Beyond that, his guitar of choice for the event has left fans scratching their heads – and trawling the internet for answers.

A brown Strat-shaped electric guitar, it features a Competition-like stripe, unlike any of his previous Washburn N4 signature models and seemingly inspired by a classic Fender colorway. Perhaps even more curiously, this mystery build has a ‘Nuno’ logo on its natural finished reverse headstock, rather than an established brand name.

Bettencourt had previously given fans a glimpse of the guitar on Instagram prior to Back to the Beginning, after he posted a clip of him playing the obscure ‘Nuno’ build in the back of a car on the way to the stadium.

It's generated many questions, especially when one considers Bettencourt's well-established relationship with Washburn – which has seen him drop paint-less signatures (because he feels paint was harming his tone) as well as craft an Eddie Van Halen tribute Bumblebee guitar.

But all of those previous models have featured the Washburn name on the headstock – whereas this one does not.

Boutique builder Iconic Guitars – whose own headstock design bears some similarities to the 'Nuno' model – commented on the post, potentially hinting at some level of involvement.

However, the headstock of the 'Nuno' build is also near-identical to those found on regular Washburn builds, which throws up another possibility: could it be a Nuno-branded build produced in collaboration with Washburn, similar to how Zakk Wylde’s Wylde Audio has operated in partnership with Schecter?

Spec-wise, what is clear is that this recipe stays very true to that of his signature Washburn N4. There’s a Floyd Rose with a D-Tuna – for detuning the sixth string to drop D – uncovered twin humbuckers, a single volume control, and a pickup switch on the treble-side horn.

A look at the bass-side horn shows the unique filled-in curvature of his N4 has been carried over, which could insinuate this is a Nuno-branded Washburn, especially because, elsewhere, the guitar so closely resembles the N4.

Of course, the fact that the guitar has a paint job adds an extra lacquer of mystery, considering Bettencourt's historic penchant for natural-only axes. Either way, Bettencourt has picked the guitar’s debut wisely with the metal world’s eyes glued to Villa Park. If it is a new venture, he's certainly got our attention.

More details will likely come to light in due course, and we’ll be the first to issue updates as soon as we know.

A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.

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