Washburn N1 Nuno Bettencourt Model

I like the smaller body and neck. I didn't like the tuners and pickups. Nice wood though. Mine is a natural finish, but I don't know what kind of wood it is. Thin rosewood neck. Bridge is string through the body, like a strat. Two humbuckers. I would give it a 10 for the body and neck, and a 1 or 2 for the hardware. So I'm putting it somewhere in the middle.

This is an addtion to a previous review I gave. Since then I have added Sperzel locking tuners and put a Bill Lawrence (billlawrence.com) L-450B48 in the brige with a coil split (I had already put in an L-450A16 in the neck). I just want to say that since making the changes to this guitar, it is my favorite. I've been playing for many years and have had all kinds of guitars from all kinds of makers. But the BL pickups in this guitar give it such a nice sound. I play mainly light jazz and blues. I have also added a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, Proco RAT2 distortion and MXR Dynacomp compression pedals. The sound is beyond anything I have played before.
And as I said in a previous review, the neck on this guitar is excellent. I have smaller hands, so it fits me very well. If you pick up a used Nuno, try the BL pickups - an L-450A16 in the neck and an L-450B48 in the bridge with a coil split. And you'll get a nice, fat strat sound when the toggle is in the middle position; plus you'll have your humbucking sound. And it's very crisp and clean. Although Bill says they're not high output, you'd swear they were.
This guitar has a great feel and now a great sound.

The action is very nice. The neck feels great to me. I'm giving it a 9 because the neck is a little more pliable than I would like. But it's still great. Whoever had this guitar previously, abused the finish. But that's not as important as the sound and overall feel of the guitar.

Dealt with them once. I'm giving them a 2 because they did offer to pay for s&h when I had to send something back to them. But they don't even know their own products.

If you can find a used one on eBay or at a pawnshop for around $100 - $150, get it and replace the tuners and pickups. And you'll have yourself a great guitar.
I've taken this guitar to some guitar techs, and they immediately tell me, without really looking at it or listening to it, that it's an inexpensive guitar (they use the word "cheap") and isn't worth putting any money into it....until they play it and hear it. Then they all have said it was an excellent deal.
I originally bought it for $100. Since then I have put about $200 into it. And it was well worth it.
The neck is a little tempermental with weather changes. But I have backups.

Don't know where mine was made, but it has 22 frets with one volume control, 3-way selector, Grover tuners, 2 humbuckers (washburn 421 and 423). Don't really need more to be honest!! Its black with Nuno's standard reversed headstock.... Wood is a fantastic finish, and although its an older model (picked mine up on Ebay from the states), it out-performs any guitar I have played.

Wow.. all I can say. Have you heard Nuno play? check out Mourning Widows - 'Furnished Souls for Rent' to get a good impression of how the guitar sounds. Simply - IT ROCKS... it has a screaming sound which I describe as a strat on steroids!!

Its all original, finish is still shiny! Build quality is excellent, it holds up fantastically when gigging. Never broken a string on it!

Very reliable, no complaints at all.

Never had to experience it...

I have had about 15 guitars, this is the cream of the crop. They are a superb buy for the money, my advice would be not to waste your money on Squier Strats or Yamaha Pacifica's when you can pick up such a uniquely sounding guitar at such a decent price. If I had had the money at the time I would have bought an N4, that will be my next purchase!

I'm not sure what year it was made. I picked it up used on ebay for $100. Whoever owned it previously took out the original pickups and replaced them with Ibanez pickups (?). But i put in Bill Lawrence. very nice. it has one volume knob; no tone knob. but that works for me.
i don't know what kind of wood it's made of, but it's nice. nice grain. it's a smaller strat-like body, and it feels excellent. the neck is thin and is the best neck i've ever played - and i've owned Fenders, Gibsons, Ibanez's, Yamahas - and others.
the tuners aren't the greatest, but they're ok. i don't use the tremolo bridge. i would prefer a tune-o-matic.

as i said, the previous owner put in Ibanez pickups, and they were horrible. but i replaced them with Bill Lawrence pickups (L-450A16). i play the Nuno through a Peavey Delta Blues. great blues and light jazz sound.

when i got the guitar, i needed to have frets filed. i prefer .10 gauge strings on it. the guitar was not taken care of very well, but now it plays very nice. the neck is the best i've ever played, and i love the smaller body. it's the best feeling guitar i've played or owned.

i've never played live with this guitar. when i first got it, the trussrod needed adjusting about every two weeks for the first couple of months. but now it's stablized. but i don't know if i trust it enough to play live. if i did, i would use a backup.

as far as email is concerned, don't hold your breath. but i called them several times because i needed a truss rod cover. they said they never made a Nuno N1 with a truss rod cover at the head. come to find out, they don't know that much about what they made. i've seen a few more N1's with a truss rod at the head, like mine.
but they couldn't help me on that.

i've been playing for 35 years. i do not regret buying this guitar. in fact, i've been thinking of getting more older Nuno's and putting different pickups in them. i'm not sure why i bought it, but i'm glad i did.
if it were lost or stolen, i would definitely get another - or two. if i could change anything about it, i would put in a tone knob, replace the tremolo with a tune-o-matic, and put in 3 Bill Lawrence single coil pickups.

Non Locking Vintage Trem jacked up to wammy Up, 2 stock humbuckers toggle switch,
and a volume knob. Black as Night. Rosewood Fingerboard. Came with HEAVY strings but my fingers adapted quickly. (The only guitar with heavy strings i truley enjoyed playing)

I play Metal And Rock i traded a 5 string vester bass, a boss pratice amp which doubled as a killer bass head and a Peavy bass Cab with a Black widow 15 inch speaker. My washburn came with a Marshall Super Lead Combo from the 70's or 80's and a G6 effects processor which I promptly traded for a Digitech RP12. It sounded Killer for all i played. Bulls On Parade Thru Crazy Train. I even played Death Metal on it and it didn't fail.

The strings where heavy as a stated before so when I foolishly traded my rig for a PA system the guy took the strings off to replace them and the neck warped back and twisted sideways so it turned to junk because of his stupidity. But For me it was the most comfortable and inspiring guitar i've EVER owned and I've bought and traded literally hundreds.

It played great everytime I picked it up at church, jamming with friends, or just practiceing. I NEVER broke a string.

Not really applicable because it was a friendly trade.

I wish I had that rig back the whole thing amp guitar and RP12 It truely inspired me I traded it for the PA so I could sing for a Metallica Tribute Band (which lasted 3 weeks)I wish I would have stuck with my Nuno

Basicly a cheapo guitar made in Indonesia. But suprisingly the body and neck work are exellent so it looks good and plays very well. Vintage style tremolo, two humbuckers, three-position switch and one volume pot.

The original sound was OK for distorted stuff. The output level was exepionally high. For clean styles, the sound was very distinguished, even weird, which is probably due to a low resonance peak of pickups. I changed to Seymour Duncan 59' pickups to make it more versatile. Although I sometimes miss the original sound, I'm very happy with the guitar and new pickups, the sound resembles now a high-dollar vintage Les Paul.

Maybe the shop owner had made the adustments, I don't know. Everythin else but tremolo system was well adjusted. Never got the trem arm to work satisfactorily, so I unscrewed the arm and threw it away. It seems that the tremolo system will need some modification.

I've played this guitar a lot for a couple of years with no problem at all.

Don't know

I've played some 25 years altogether. After pickup change this became my main guitar which almost beats my old strat and Gibson ES-335 but costs only a fraction of their price. I't fits perfectly in my hands and plays like a dream, when properly adjusted. Thanks, Nuno, for the design.
I don't like to use the tremolo arm often, but maybe some day I'll fix that, too.
I'd guess it would be difficult or even impossible to find a better guitar for this price, including the pickup replacement.

1998, 22 fret rosewood fingerboard on a maple neck. The body is made from alder and mine is stained in cherry red, thoughit does come in natural. It's like a small strat shape body, not like three quarter size or anything, just narrow. No pickguard and two black uncovered humbuckers. One volume control, no tone, three way selector switch on the bottom horn. Vintage style tremelo, mine came set up capable of only down bend, but I don't know whether that was the factory or the shop I bought it from. White 'end' on the tremelo arm, chrome hardware [bridge, strap buttons, tuners] Grover tuners and a plastic nut.

It sounds great to me, I play mostly Hendrix and Metallica and I think it suits both those styles well. The pickups are a litle trebly and so I think that compensates for the lack of single coils while playing hendrix . I am using it like this:
Guitar ->Boss TU-2 ->Crybaby Wah GCB-95 -> Visual Sound Route 66 Overdrive/Compression -> Boss BF-2 Flanger ->1979 Marshall 2103 Mk II Master Model 100W Lead 2x12 Combo.
It can get a little noisy while playing but I think that's due to the Route 66, the pickups themselves are fine apart from being a little bright. I do anything and everything with this guitar from Nu-Metal to Rock, from from Metal to Jazz and anything in between, the guitar copes well enough but with no tone control you've gotta use the amp/effect EQ for variation.

I could do with a better set-up on -my- guitar though others' may be better. The action is a little high and it doesn't stay in tune exceptionally well, it seems to change with the tides - sometimes it will stay in tune for ages, even after a load of vibrato abuse. But sometimes it just won't stay in for as long as I think it should, I dunno, maybe I play harder than necessary. there are a couple of hard 'lumps' in the finish, like hard red grains.

I've played live with it and it did fine, managed to stay in tune and sound good all at the same time, what more could you ask for? I'd gig without a backup, have done everytime. The strap buttons are ok, my strap fits them pretty tightly, but once the front strap button actually ripped out, but that was easily fixed with some car body filler by just putting it in the hole and shoving the screw back in and leaving to set. Still, it could have happened on stage! I may fit straplocks one day if I'm feeling flush. The finish is real thin, but pretty hardwearing, I pulled it off in a few little specks when removing a sticker [i covered my guitar in them a while back and then decided to take them off last week] but it tends to dent not disappear if you knock it.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing for 2 and a half years now and have had this guitar for 2 years and I'd buy the guitar if I went back and did it all again, but this time I'd get them to set it up for me, perhaps at no extra cost. It's really lightweight, but not so much so that its incredibly neck heavy, I don't know if I'd buy another one if it were stolen though, I would maybe wanna try something different. When I got it, I only compared it to a Billy T, stupid I suppose but it worked out pretty well. I wish it had a tone control so i could get rid of some of the brightness -sometimes-.

My N1 is a '98 model. It was made in Indonesia. It has 22 frets that are all easily accessible cause of the Stephens Extended Cutaway. It's a solid Alder guitar with a matte Padauk finish. It's absolutely beautiful, especially in the right light, the Padauk (reddish) finish seems to almost glow and looks kind of 3D-ish. There is only one knob: a volume control, which kind of sucks, cause the N1 (its the stock pickups) sounds a little bright. (I have to turn the presence completely down on my amp so my ears don't bleed). It's a downsized strat style guitar with two humbuckers: washburn 200 series. It has a solid maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. It's got a vintage style tremolo. The tuners are grover (they are exceptionally good, even when you don't consider that I only paid $180). It is my opinion that grover doesn't make crappy tuners. I like the neck, while It could be a little thicker, it's not as thin as a wizard neck, and it is extremely comforable. I'm not sure , but i think it has a compound radius. It came with a trussrod adjuster and a cable. I give it an eight because it doesn't have a tone knob. I bought this instead of the N2 cause i don't like floyd roses, so the tone knob is the only thing bugging me. Also, the pickups (while better than the pickups on my RG550) are too trebly. Another thing, the pickup selector is really easy to move and it's extremely quite, you don't hear any pops when switching pickups. I also love the position of the selector, right next to the neck pickup, since I mainly have my picking hand over the neck pickup, it's alot more convenient to switch than standard 5ways.

I think this guitar suits my style very well. I can turn up the gain on my amp, and get a really good metal sound. If I back it off, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. Bluesy wise, well IMHO, single coils get better bluesy sounds, so I'm not gonna knock the guitar for having humbuckers, that's why I bought it. I am using it through a Fender M80 Chorus. (I know, it sucks). It gets kind of noisy on distortion when you are not playing, but all I gotta do is change the pickups. I'd describe the sound as Full/Bright. On the clean channel, it has a pleasantly surpising sound. All I do is roll back the volume to like 8.5 and it cuts some of the highs. like the other guys with the N2s and N4s, it's very original sounding. doesn't sound like anything other than itself.

Ok, here are where the problems start, nothing really wrong with the setup, action, finish or pickups....the one thing that pissed me off when I noticed it(I noticed it AFTER I bought it) is that the bridge is misaligned by like 3/32" of an inch. now, it actually has imroved intonation on the bass side, cause i don't have to push the saddles back as far, but it pisses me off cause of asthetic purposes (you can't tell if my arms in the way) but I know I only paid $180 but still. The quality of everything else is superb, though, honestly better than some strats I've seen in the $500 range. although the bridge thing doesn't affect comfort as far as playing, or sound, or intonation, I have to bring the rating down .

I would give without a backup, the finish seems solid, etc.... one thing that scares me is the postiioning angle of the top strap button. it could have been put in a little more facing the floor. I'm thinking of getting straplocks for this reason. I'm not gonna use it for gigging, so the rating is for the strap button

WASHBURN SUCKS. I emailed them over 2 weeks ago to see if they could send a replacement guitar cause of the bridge (which i think falls under faulty craftmenship, don't you?) not even a reply to say thankyou for purchasing our product but sorry we can't help you. bastards.

Been playing for 10 years. I own a fender classical, a Vantage acousic/electric, and an Rg550 electric (which now sits in it's case). I wished I would have noticed the bridge before I bought it, but oh well. If it were lost or stolen, I would definitely buy it again. I love how comfortable it is, how elegant yet understated it is, I love how easy it is to switch pickups. I love the color. I hate the fact that the bridge is crooked, and that i could fix it, but not without screwing in three new holes for the bass side of the bridge. i wish it had seymour duncans, but I just got some birthday money. so that dream is probably gonna come true. One word of advise, if your looking for an N2, or an N4 but can't come up with the cash, or if you wish the N2 came with a vintage trem instead of a floyd rose, get the N1. just make sure you're not a schmuck like me, and check the bridge before you buy it. other than that, simply put: YOU CANNOT BEAT THIS GUITAR FOR ITS PRICE (even when you include $100+ bucks for new pickups and installation) It's that great a sounding aguitar.