After decades of playing guitars bearing the Washburn logo, Nuno Bettencourt has launched a line of instruments under his own name. But Nuno Guitars isn’t just about slapping a famous name on a headstock, and it’s not merely another signature line. The new venture is a hands-on operation that lets him oversee everything, from tonewood selection and hardware choices to the way each model is built and brought to market.The brand is launching with three distinct ranges. At the top sits the Thoroughbred Series—Masterbuilt guitars hand-crafted by longtime N4 builder Chris Meade in his Cincinnati shop. This series consists of the Dark Horse and White Stallion models, featuring exotic wood combinations chosen by Bettencourt. “I wanted to switch it up,” Bettencourt says. “I didn’t want to just go, ‘Well, here’s a Washburn with the Nuno logo on the headstock.’” The Dark Horse boasts an alder body with a ziricote top, while the White Stallion has a three-piece avodire (white mahogany) body and a curly maple top. The ziricote caught his eye, he says, because it creates the illusion of a paint job while being entirely natural wood, with each guitar’s grain pattern being completely unique.Adding to the arresting visuals on the Dark Horse and White Stallion is the wood striping across the body. Inspired by the B.C. Rich Mockingbird Nuno’s older brother Luís owned growing up, these aren’t painted stripes, but rather actual contrasting woods, ebony and maple, inlaid into the instrument. On the Masterbuilt models, these stripes run completely through the body. “When I drew the design, I really connected with it because of what I remembered from my childhood,” Bettencourt says. “It felt like me, and it felt like a great way to go into this new era of guitars.”The second range, the Stable Series, represents the U.S. production line built in Oxnard, California. This series offers the Dark Horse, White Stallion, and N4 models, all maintaining premium quality—alder bodies with wenge (Dark Horse) or swamp ash (White Stallion) tops, genuine Floyd Rose bridges, and the same U.S.-made Nuno signature pickups found in the Masterbuilts. The differentiator isn’t quality, but exotic versus traditional materials. “The Masterbuilt is like the Ferrari of the guitars,” Nuno says. “But still, you’ve gotta be able to jump into a Mercedes, and take that thing onstage and say, ‘I could play this all day.’ That’s the U.S.A. guitars.”“I didn’t want to just go, ‘Well, here’s a Washburn with the Nuno logo on the headstock.’”The Colt Series rounds out the line as the import offering, manufactured in China. All three models—Dark Horse, White Stallion, and N4—are available in this series with woods including alder and swamp ash for the bodies and rock maple for the necks. While these guitars also use budget-friendly components—licensed Floyd Rose-style hardware rather than genuine Floyd units, Korean-made Nuno pickups—Bettencourt stresses that they are not mere entry-level instruments. “With the stuff that’s coming from overseas, everybody’s always like, ‘Yeah, those are beginner guitars, whatever.’ No. It was like, who are the best of the best [builders], where they can fool you into going, ‘Wait—this was made where?’”All electric models feature the Extended Cutaway neck joint—a 5-bolt design that’s been Nuno’s signature for decades and provides exceptional upper-fret access—as well as Floyd Rose tremolo systems: Original Floyd Rose units on the Masterbuilts, genuine Floyd Rose bridges on the U.S. production models, and licensed Floyd Rose-style systems on the imports.A point of interest is the fingerboard options, which include a flamed maple offering on the White Stallion—Nuno’s first maple board in many years. Limited signature runs with Washburn occasionally featured maple fretboards, and he famously played one in Extreme’s 1990 video for “Decadence Dance.” “That was an N3,” he recalls. “And stupidly, in the last shot in the video, I dove into water. You see me splashing around like an idiot.” He laughs: “I think I ruined the guitar, but then it got stolen, anyway.” Years later, just the body resurfaced at a Hard Rock Cafe in Asia—the neck was gone, but the shadow of the N3 sticker remained.While all White Stallions feature flamed maple boards, the Dark Horse models and N4s stick with ebony fretboards. All models maintain the 25.5' scale length, 22 frets, and dot inlays that have been Nuno hallmarks. The necks themselves are birdseye maple on Masterbuilt models, hard maple on U.S. production guitars, and rock maple on imports.Nuno’s classic N4 tone came from a Seymour Duncan ’59 in the neck paired with a Bill Lawrence L-500 in the bridge, and the new guitars feature custom Nuno signature humbuckers designed to capture that trademark sound. U.S.-made versions of these pickups appear in both Masterbuilt and U.S. production models, while Korean-made versions populate the import line. All models feature the same minimalist control layout Nuno has always preferred: one volume knob, a 3-way toggle, and no tone pot.The N4 itself remains in the line, and since it was always Nuno’s design—and one that he controls—it has come over to Nuno Guitars virtually untouched. Notably, the N4 is the only model that features chrome hardware; the Dark Horse and White Stallion models all sport black hardware regardless of production level.“I didn’t want anything super extravagant. I didn’t want a ton of guitars. I just wanted ‘mine.’”Additionally, Nuno Guitars will offer an acoustic model—the Lusitano, which features a grand auditorium body with a solid spruce top and mahogany back and sides, with custom f-holes alongside a traditional soundhole. It’s fitted with a soundhole-mounted preamp and an under-saddle Piezo pickup system, chrome hardware, ebony fretboard, and 20 frets, with a 12th fret inlay of the Portuguese national emblem, a nod to Nuno’s heritage. “It’s full black, with white trim all around,” he says of the Lusitano. “We also do some different things with the neck, because I’ve always wanted an acoustic that plays more like an electric. Why wouldn’t you?”Across all three electric series, and the acoustic, the quality approach remains consistent. From the Masterbuilts with their exotic woods and premium finishes to the U.S. models to the imports to the Lusitano, each guitar has its place. “I didn’t want anything super extravagant,” Nuno says. “I didn’t want a ton of guitars. I didn’t want a big line. I just wanted ‘mine.’”Getting to that point wasn’t easy. “It was really hard for me to do this,” he admits. “The main reason was because of my name on the headstock. It felt really, really egotistical and self-serving.” But after a lifetime of playing, he realized it was time. And that means being involved in and fully committed to every aspect, from Chris Meade’s Cincinnati workshop to the factories in Oxnard and overseas. It’s the same philosophy he brings to the stage—the work ethic doesn’t change whether it’s a small club or a stadium, and it extends from his playing to the instruments themselves. “I’ve never done anything but be all in on everything,” Nuno says. “It’s either you’re that or you’re out. And when it comes to that passion for the instrument, I’m all in. That’s why I did this.”
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