A New Toy!
I am very proud to announce a new guitar at TrueGuitar.com!
The newly acquired guitar is a Washburn Nuno Bettencourt model and
has so far proved to be a very impressive instrument. Nuno
Bettencourt is the guitarist from the rock band Extreme. This
guitar is extremely comfortable due to a slightly smaller body and a
thin neck. It is very nicely balanced too. I like the placement of the volume
knob and pickup selector. They are both positioned out of the way
of my picking hand, but nearby enough to be effective. The guitar
features the Buzz Feiten Tuning System, and I am very eager to see
what kind of difference this makes to the intonation!
The Floyd Rose system has stayed pretty well in tune without the
locking nuts clamped, and the Grover tuners are very smooth and
accurate. I am quite impressed by them, as the tuners sometimes
fitted to similar Floyd Rose equipped guitars are not as smooth.
Features:
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22 Frets
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Double Humbuckers with coil split
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Floyd Rose licensed tremolo system
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Grover Tuners
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Buzz Feiten Tuning System
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Rosewood fret board
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Not sure what kind of wood the body is made
out of, but it sounds quite good and is not overly heavy. So
far I have been unable to find the specs that match this
guitar.
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Coil tap on both pickups.
I originally had this
guitar strung with GHS Boomers, Extra Light gauge (009-042) and
was very happy with the result.
I then decided that a Light Gauge was now in order (010 - 046)
Still GHS Boomers! I wanted to see how the
guitar (tremolo in particular) would cope with the extra tension.
After stringing up and making some minor adjustments to the trem,
the guitar was good to go. The heavier strings only pulled a
slight amount of relief into the neck, so I decided not to adjust
the truss rod this time. (For those interested, the truss rod
adjusts from the body end of the neck and I found that the truss
adjusts beautifully. Very smooth!) In all, the
guitar responded quite nicely to the thicker strings, I am still
undecided as to wether I will keep this guitar on light gauge or
extra light. Both gauges have been great on the guitar. The choice
will probably boil down to personal preference at the end of the
day. Hopefully I will decide soon, so that I
can fine tune the setup of this guitar and let you know how the
Buzz Feiten tuning system works. Keep in mind that
a Buzz Feiten guitar should be tuned to E's to make the most of
the better intonation. Low E open
A string 7th Fret
D string 14th Fret
G String 9th Fret
B String 5th Fret
High E open FUTURE PLANS FOR THIS GUITAR: I
very rarely keep my guitars standard, so there will possibly be
some new pickups on route for the guitar.
The EMG 85 is my current favorite for both bridge and neck
positions, but I like the Seymour Duncan JB and the Dimarzio Tone
Zone as well. If I am not mistaken, the USA made N4 has Seymour
Duncan and Bill Lawrence pickups in it. Right,
still no decision regarding light or extra light strings! Too soon
to tell as I haven't spent much time with this guitar since
restringing. I have however gotten my hands on a
Hipshot Trem-Setter. I am dying to fit this to one of my guitars
to see what kind of difference it makes. The Trem-Setter
apparently "cures" many of the common complaints
guitarists have about floating trem systems. More on this later!
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