Feature: Nuno Betterncourt's "extreme" funk!

Hi all,

Here's to one of my favourite guitarist of all time: Nuno Bettencourt.

He used to be the guitarist of the now dyfunct band Extreme, who gave us the pop ballad hit, "More Than Words". Don't be fooled by the gentle and soothing guitar playing in that iconic single as Nuno plays superb blend of rock & funk guitar like no other. His sense of funk rythym has influence my playing very much.

Someone once asked, "What effects do I use to get Nuno's sound?". To which a magazine column answered, "It's not in the effects he used. It's in his picking.". This mantra has stayed with me till this day. I'm convinced that with a good picking hand, one can produce all kinds of tone from a guitar using just a simple distortion.

Besides having great funky tone, Nuno's got amazing riff ideas too! Check out an amatuer playing one of his best known rock solo from "Get The Funk Out" in the video below.



As if that isn't enough, I was quite amazed to catch a video of his live performance. (Watch video below) Awesome energy on stage! I'm puzzled as to how he plays with such accuracy and timing with his guitar hanging so low? Guess that's why he's Nuno and I'm not! :)



Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: guitarist, nuno_bettencourt, video, funk