NAMM 2010: Randall NB15 Nuno Bettencourt practice amp
Aside from the official release of the NB King 112 30 watt Nuno Bettencourt signature combo amp, Randall was also showcasing the forthcoming (release date TBA) NB15 combo amp.
Look at that dear little thing. Seeing them all stacked up like that reminds me of Brian May’s famous AC30 wall.
Oh and for some context, here’s the rest of the wall:
And here’s the press release about the NB King 112:
Following the release of the award-winning NBKing head and cab, Randall Amplifiers announces the new Nuno Bettencourt signature combo amplifier, the NBKing 112.
The NBKing 112 is an all tube 30 watt combo amplifier powered by 4 EL84 tubes. It utilizes the same 3 channel preamp found on the 100 watt Randall NBKing head. The top facing gold control panel contains 2 full featured channels, clean and overdrive. The third channel is a dedicated solo channel containing drive and volume controls.
An oversized volume control and analog VU metre contribute to a vintage and boutique vibe. Two top mounted carrying handles make transport effortless. An effects loop and MIDI in/thru footswitch connections add versatility.
The front two-tone grill cloth contains Nuno’s logo and is both surrounded and divided by classy white piping. The cabinet houses a Celestion® Greenback speaker.
NEWS: Nuno Bettencourt to play guitar for Rhianna
Whoa. I didn’t see this one coming!!! Just got this email from the Extreme forum.
Hey all… Nuno here. I wanted to share some news with you… A friend and Music Director, Tony Bruno, reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in playing guitar with Rihanna. Rihanna is a regular in the Bettencourt-house playlist… And as much as I dig her as an artist… my first thought was that there isn’t a whole lot of guitar in her music and therefore probably not the greatest fit for what I do. But before I had a chance to verbalize that thought… Tony said, “before you say anything let me play you the direction she wants to go live.” And when I heard it… I said wow, this rocks… it’s heavy and funky… and it hit me that this is MY shit… this is my style… how I love to play… I got very excited at the possibility of playing some of her great songs with a heavier treatment. When I asked Tony Bruno why?… he told me that Rihanna loves bands like Paramore and Linkin Park and loves to push it up a notch or two live in the rock department. Hmmm… let me think? Touring and sharing the stage with a cool and talented artist like Rihanna… and being able to bring what I do passionately to the table as a musician and performer…? IM IN! And having finished the first round of rehearsals… it did not disappoint. Even better than what I expected because she also has the most incredible band, and I get the privilege to add to their wall of sound. It’s gonna be fun. Come see and hear it for yourself!
Nuno
And BTW… No… this is NOT the end of Extreme. We have a live DVD and CD coming out in early 2010 and we will be writing new material throughout the year. We had a great run across the globe on Saudades do Rock….and we’ll be back.
Um… Nuno, I love ya, I’ll support whatever you do, but I’m gonna need a minute to digest this, orrite?
NEWS: Nuno Bettencourt on How I Met Your Mother
Goddammit Nuno Bettencourt is the coolest cat alive. Not to be outdone by Eddie Van Halen’s recent appearance on that Charlie Sheen show I refuse to watch or give any coverage to after seeing it once and being thoroughly appalled by its lameness, Nuno has appeared with Jason Segel on How I Met Your Mother, paying not-so-subtle tribute to the More Than Words video.
Press release:
Nuno Bettencourt, guitarist for the band EXTREME, and actor Jason Segel star in a music video for the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother”.
Known for their love affair with “songs that are awesome,” the makers of “How I Met Your Mother” have re-created the famous EXTREME video “More Than Words”. Other cast members — including Neil Patrick Harris, Cobie Smulders, Alyson Hannigan and Josh Radnor — also appear in the video.
Nuno explained the odd feeling it gave him filming a video that felt very similar to one he’s already made. “It’s bizarre looking up and seeing Jason,” he stated with a laugh. “It’s pretty interesting.” However, he added, “It’s kind of cool, because it’s not the song. It’s a completely different song in the sense of lyrics and everything, so that makes it interesting.”
Jason Segel said that performing with Bettencourt was “amazing. I feel like I have a new soulmate. We might even try to do a little collaboration at some point, so that would be a real honor.”
Associate producer Carl MacLaren explains that the idea is that “the video doesn’t live in the world of the show, like most of our websites do. The video lives in the world of Marshall’s brain. This, in a sense, is like the ultimate version of the song and we’re doing another website within the show. You’ll see a piece of the website in the episode, and the great thing is people are going to assume that’s what they’re going to see when they go to the URL — and instead, it’s going to be this high-concept video starring Nuno Bettencourt and basically a reenactment of the ‘More than Words’ video.”
SUMMER NAMM: Randall Nuno Bettencourt combo
The NB100 head is still pretty hard to come by at the moment but I can’t wait to try it out one of these days. Here are the specs of the NB100 head from the Randall site:
Designed with Nuno Bettencourt and partner Peter King, the new NBKing100 is the perfect combination of classic regal looks and modern circuitry to reproduce the legendary percussive tone of Nuno Bettencourt. A classic 2-channel amp with 3 modes of operation, you can instantly select via the MIDI channel switching, a sparkling CLEAN channel with the perfect amount of drive, an OVERDRIVE for any vintage to modern high gain rhythm tones and a SOLO mode for unparalleled harmonic sustain. The rear panel features include MIDI in/thru, Power tube bias section and Series Effect loop.
PREAMP CHANNELS
3 Channels
CH. 1: Clean Mode
CH. 2: Overdrive Mode
CH. 3: Solo Mode
MASTER CONTROLS
Volume
POWER AMP
All Tube • (4) E34L Tubes
POWER OUTPUT
100 Watts
FEATURES
EFX Loop
MIDI In/Thru
VU Output Meter
CLICK HERE to buy the Randall Nuno Bettencourt NBKing100 100W Tube Guitar Amp Head from Musician’s Friend.
CLICK HERE to buy the Randall Nuno Bettencourt NB412 100W 4×12 Guitar Speaker Cabinet from Musician’s Friend.
CLICK HERE to follow Premier Guitar on Twitter.
DOUBLE NECK GUITAR WEEK – Day 4: Washburn N8
These awesome and very rare Washburn Nuno Bettencourt models were made by the Washburn Custom Shop in very limited numbers. Nuno was pictured with this guitar in Washburn ads around the time of the III Sides To Every Story album. Good luck finding one today!
NEWS: Extreme plans Australian tour
“Well, well, well… Now that we are home. Back in the U.S. of A. I noticed… with a little help from a birdie outside my window… Two things. 1. We have a new president. And 2. That I didn’t let our beloved fans in America know how much they rocked! I apologize. To be honest, the idea of doing live shows and blogging after the run was completely alien to me… as in EXTREME’s early days we never had that option. And it was only suggested to me by our trusty manager at the end of our U.K. leg, while we were in London, that I should start letting the fans know what we were feeling. So therefore it was quite a bit of time after the U.S. run so I kinda missed out. But I really wanna share with you my thoughts on the U.S. leg.
“You guys here on our home turf had the biggest and most important effect on this band. Why? Well, this was indeed the first time in 13 years that we were together and out on the road playing… For our old fans? New fans? Will anyone show up? Will they still give a shit about us? We had no idea. No matter how confident we were about our new CD, or how cocky we were about our live potential as performers and musicians, deep down we were… OK, I’ll say it… a bit scared. I mean, this our home. This is where it all started for us. So… it was gonna be up to you to let us know and give us… the no-bullshit barometer — first-impression stamp of approval or disapproval.
“And I have to say… from the first show in upstate New York to the last one in Los Anegeles, without a doubt some of the best shows on the 2008 tour… but you were the ones that whipped this band into shape… You were the first to give us the inspiration and confidence and power that made us believe that, yes… we were in fact BACK! The first to wow us with your energy and passion for rock and roll that we had been missing for so many years.
“It’s not easy coming back after so long… But you gave us a hell of a welcome back party in every city… and more importantly an incredible boost of confidence. We couldn’t have gone into the U.K. and Europe and Asia without the love that you showed for us here at home. Being the first audiences to connect with, you basically had the responsibility to get us to believe in ourselves once again. And we are deeply indebted to you. Our fans.
“Hopefully we can reconnect with you in the New Year to thank you in person. And once again… we haven’t forgotten about you in Australia, South America, Canada, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and everywhere else that we will try to reach.”
Excuse me while I skip around the room for a bit while doing the happydance. Hehe.
CLICK HERE to buy Extreme’s latest CD, Saudades De Rock, from Amazon.com
NEWS: Another new Washburn Nuno limited edition
Boogie Street is commissioning several runs of these High Gloss Padauk N4s. Each run will be a numbered run of 7 guitars, and each run will be slightly different in hardware color and/or other subtle differences. They will all feature a high gloss Padauk N4 body and an oil finish padauk neck, plus Nuno’s specs including the Bill Lawrence Bridge humbucker and the Seymour Duncan ‘59 in the neck.
Hit up Boogie Street Guitars for more info.
CLICK HERE to buy Extreme’s new album, Saudades de Rock and CLICK HERE for a recent I Heart Guitar story about the Washburn N3 Nuno Bettencourt limited edition and Nuno’s new signature Randall amp.
NEWS: New Nuno Washburn guitar, Randall amp
Nuno Bettencourt’s signature Randall amplifier will be officially unveiled at Winter NAMM in January 2009, but Nuno fans won’t have to wait until then to snag a unique piece of signature gear.
As posted at the Extreme band forums, Funky Munky Music is awaiting delivery of a very limited run Washburn N3, based on Nuno’s third ever Washburn prototype, which had a maple fretboard and two Bill Lawrence L500 pickups. The standard Nuno model, the N4, has a Seymour Duncan 59 in the neck in addition to a bridge L500.
There was a Korean-produced model called the N3 for a while, but the new limited edition N3s are made in the USA. They have 22 frets, unlike Nuno’s original which had 24, and feature an original Floyd Rose bridge, a birdseye maple neck and fretboard, the original 1 5/8” nut width, and the original N4 neck profile. Interestingly, at the Extreme forum, Funky Munky says Nuno asked Washburn to revert the neck profile of the N4 to the original shape within the last month or so, and change the nut width to 1 5/8” instead of the current 1 11/16” nut width.
As for that Randall amp, in an official press release Nuno says “There is a reason that I have never endorsed any amplifier company exclusively. Because I have always had to jump back and forth from amp to amp. One for rhythm, Another for solos. A different amp on every recording and tour, constantly searching, unsatisfied. Always good, but not great. Never finding that perfect tone. There was always something missing. Basically, I gave in and truly believed that Marshall would be the staple to fall back on… The Constant.”
As a bonus, it looks like no other amp and cabinet before it… the look takes the past into the future.”
I found the image of the amp at the What’s That Dude Play? blog.
For more about the very interesting saga of Bill Lawrence pickups, check out the Bill Lawrence Review website.
Click here to buy Extreme’s new album, Saudades de Rock
REVIEW: Extreme – Saudades de Rock
Thirteen years have passed since Extreme’s last album, the raw and underrated ‘Waiting For The Punchline.’ Since then, singer Gary Cherone fronted Van Halen (he put in a valiant effort, but it was just not to be); drummer Paul Geary, who split halfway through the ‘Punchline’ sessions, managed Godsmack; bass player Pat Badger raised alpacas; and Nuno released a whole bunch of albums, mostly under various band names but still all amounting to “Nuno + backing band.” Now the band feels the time is right to return, and although Geary is assisting with band management matters, the drum stool is now occupied by Kevin Figueiredo from Nuno’s last band, Dramagods.
Saudades de Rock (the name loosely translates as ‘nostalgic homesickness for rock’) has a lot in common with ‘Punchline’ – raw production, ambient drum sounds, a minimum of overdubs – but it sounds tighter, sharper, and altogether more powerful than that album’s dark, muffled tone. The album opens with Star, draped in Queen-inspired harmonies over a rhythm section slightly reminiscent of the big Van Halen shuffles like ‘Hot For Teacher.’ Lyrically, the song is similar to ‘Hip Today’ from ‘Punchline,’ but while that song offered an ominous warning to the here today, gone tomorrow grunge bands of the day, ‘Star’ expands the scope to the world of instant stardom through reality TV and paparazzi frenzy.
‘Comfortably Dumb’ has a killer groove and tight vocal harmonies, while the lyrics flow on from Frank Zappa’s famous comment that the most plentiful element in the universe is stupidity. The protagonist of the song has become jaded and desensitised due to multimedia oversaturation. A parallel can again be drawn to a ‘Punchline’ track, ‘Cynical,’ but in that song the subject was left negative and pessimistic by the state of the world, in ‘Comfortably Dumb’ they’ve shut down completely.
‘Take Us Alive’ has a rockabilly-influenced, country edge complete with some twangy guitar noodling. ‘King of the Ladies’ is reminiscent of Nuno’s solo work, and is one of several moments on the album where Nuno lets his Octave pedal do the talking, to great effect. ‘Last Hour on Earth’ picks up where Van Halen’s ‘A Year To The Day’ left off, in both structure and feel, and ‘Flower Man’ picks up the pace with more clever harmony colouring. ‘Ghost’ has drawn many comparisons to Coldplay, and if radio was to find this song it would be a certain hit. And while the album concludes with ‘Peace (Saudade),’ it feels more like a low-key encore because it’s the second last track, ‘Sunrise,’ that really feels like the closer to the album proper.
Some fans are calling Saudades de Rock the best album of Extreme’s career. Others aren’t quite won over by the continued use of the live-sounding recording techniques of the ‘Punchline’ album, hoping instead for a return to the more produced sounds of ‘Pornograffiti’ and ‘III Sides to Every Story.’ Personally I freaking love this album and, after living with it for about a month, I still find myself drawn to it several times a week, when usually I’ve moved on from an album by that time. It’s for that reason that I’m naming Saudades de Rock my favourite album of the year so far.
Open E Records
LINKS:
Extreme website
Extreme Myspace
Open E Records
Saudades de Rock at Amazon.com
NEWS: ADA returns!
Those of us with a fondness for the, let’s just say, larger-haired corners of the rock guitar world will be excited to know that the long missing-in-action company ADA (Analog/Digital Associates) is on the way back after about a decade or so of inactivity.
ADA’s famous midi-controllable tube preamp, the MP-1, was used on a lot of recordings around the late 80s/early 90s, especially paired with the power section of a Marshall JCM800 or JCM 900 head. Notable MP-1 users included Steve Vai, Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt, White Lion’s Vito Bratta, and Paul Gilbert. On the bass side, Primus’s Les Claypool used a modified MP-1, while Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey used the dedicated bass version, the MB-1. To this day, Gilbert uses a modified ADA flanger tweaked to create a whammy-like divebomb effect, and other notable flanger users include Pat Travers and Testament’s Alex Skolnick.
We’re in the storming and forming phase and usually send out a canned response, but your questions are intriguing and deserve an answer.
David Tarnowski, head engineer and inventor of all things A/DA, continues to be majority owner of A/DA and chief engineer of the new A/DA. He still owns all rights to the A/DA electronic designs and trademark. A group of us have convinced him that the time is right to come out of retirement and resurrect the A/DA legacy. We’re starting with stomp boxes, most notably the Flanger and Final Phase, which will be re-released in late 2008/2009. We’ll continue soon thereafter with other legacy effects such as Battman and the Seamoon line, as well as the Rocket Amp series. We’re currently working with suppliers to source original parts so that these releases can be as “original” as possible – we’ve gone over the designs and have decided that the original designs were best. We’re in the early stages, but are confident that we’ll have a full line of products to present at NAMM 2009.
Of particular interest to the ADAForum board would be our introduction of the all new MP3. Still on the drawing board, the digital potential is enormous and we’re still hashing out potential functionality prior to full design. As you well know, the fight starts trying to decide what goes into a future MPx and doesn’t stop until the prototype has been demo’d and agreed upon by all. As of now, there is no release date for the MP3.
We appreciate your interest and would ask that you help pass the word that the original A/DA is back!!
Cheers – the A/DA staff”
Hi! I'm Peter Hodgson. I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), Blunt, Beat (including their weekly hard rock/metal column Crunch) and The Brag. And I'm Assistant Social Coordinator with Seymour Duncan.
I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've also dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.
You can check out my guitar playing at Bandcamp or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com