How to acheive a nuno-like tone?

[alaineth]

Hi, I'd like a recommendation of a drive pedal that has a similar tone to his. From the hardest driving songs from pornograffitti to slightly driven sounds of 3 sides. Would you consider it a marshall type sound? I will probably get an EQ pedal along with whichever drive recommendation so i have more tweakability. No exact budget, but I would think below $200.

I have two amps at the moment, (though I'm planning to sell one.. still can't decide). One is a 1 X 12AX7 1X EL84 Blackheart little Giant, the other is a 3 X 12AX7 2 X 6L6 Pignose amp. Should I get a pedal to use with the amp's clean? or stack with the amp's drive.

I don't have much experience with pedals, I'm not expecting to exactly get his tone (which very much comes from his fingers), but it serves a benchmark for me. So, fire away with your recomendations!

 

[Whitestrat]

Hi, I'd like a recommendation of a drive pedal that has a similar tone to his. From the hardest driving songs from pornograffitti to slightly driven sounds of 3 sides. Would you consider it a marshall type sound? I will probably get an EQ pedal along with whichever drive recommendation so i have more tweakability. No exact budget, but I would think below $200.

I have two amps at the moment, (though I'm planning to sell one.. still can't decide). One is a 1 X 12AX7 1X EL84 Blackheart little Giant, the other is a 3 X 12AX7 2 X 6L6 Pignose amp. Should I get a pedal to use with the amp's clean? or stack with the amp's drive.

I don't have much experience with pedals, I'm not expecting to exactly get his tone (which very much comes from his fingers), but it serves a benchmark for me. So, fire away with your recomendations!

Nuno's tone is one of the most varied tones I've heard ever. All his albums sound different. From Extreme all the way to Waiting For The Punchline. The closest 2 would be Porno and 3 sides. Waiting was a totally different tone, and I read he used 2 amps, and recorded totally dry, and only on one channel to get that sound.

But for his Porno/3 sides I'd consider it more of a marshall tone, because of the sweet highs he gets as well as the fuzzy saturation you hear. 3 sides seems to have more treble than porno does though...

I really don't know how the go about emulating his tone, though I can tell you that getting his guitar solves about 1/3rd of the problem.:mrgreen:

 

[alaineth]

yea but his guitar is like more than 3K!! and not easy to find a 2nd hand one here, which i might consider.. heh heh. maybe just get the bill lawrence pups? We'll see. I find his tone really trebly, esp for a humbucker. Humbucker from Hell maybe?

I like the guitar's stephen's cutaway!

So marshally tone.. get a Jackhammer?

 

[edder]

Bill Lawrence L500-L chugga chugga.

 

[Whitestrat]

yea but his guitar is like more than 3K!! and not easy to find a 2nd hand one here, which i might consider.. heh heh. maybe just get the bill lawrence pups? We'll see. I find his tone really trebly, esp for a humbucker. Humbucker from Hell maybe?

I like the guitar's stephen's cutaway!

So marshally tone.. get a Jackhammer?

Aiyah... no need to buy the USA one wat... some of the older Korea ones had the L500 as well.

 

[Whitestrat]

Bill Lawrence L500-L chugga chugga.

Not djeng djeng?

 

[alaineth]

The N1's and N2's have an irritating neck heel.. like a strat. stephen's cutaway is really nice. played with the N4 once in swee lee. woot. but anyway i'm happy with the guitar I have so maybe just a pick up change.

What's the difference like between a L500 L and XL?

Pickups aside, pedals to recommend? dist on clean channel or stack with amp's overdrive..

btw for nuno fans, Extreme's gonna release a new album in 2008 followed with world tour! checkout their myspace. really excited!!

 

[jeremyrozario]

The N1's and N2's have an irritating neck heel.. like a strat. stephen's cutaway is really nice. played with the N4 once in swee lee. woot. but anyway i'm happy with the guitar I have so maybe just a pick up change.

doesn't your jem have that neck heel too? wads wrong wid e breeds? juz get a pod xt, and tweak from there lar =P

 

[NanoShred]

Nuno's set up these days is two JCM800s, one for clean and one for dirty. The dirty amp is goosed with a Proco Rat. The rat alone will not give you the nuno sound. If your playing through a clean amp, the only pedal i can think of is a crunch box to get the modded jcm800 sound.

He used the ada mp-1 alot also in the early days, but those are very difficult to find here. Also been known to use the Hughes and Kettner Triamp during the Waiting for the Punchline days and his solo project.

Randall is about to release a Nuno Bettencourt signature amp. Maybe you would wanna wait for that.

EL84 will not get you close to the nuno tone. Too bright and brittle. Your 6L6 might be possible, if your going clean on the tube amp, get a crunch box. If you are using it medium dirty, get a fulltone fulldrive 2, Ohms Lab saharasra overdrive or a cheap ts-7 might do the trick.

 

[alaineth]

The Jem has the AANJ, much nicer than the N1 N2 blocks

Nothing wrong with the breeds, just that nuno's tone is more trebly, breeds are fat.

thanks for the recommendations nano. Time to hunt around for pedals! there are a ton of tubescreamer clones out there though!

out of point but HELLOWEEN's COMING TO TOWN!

 

[NanoShred]

The Jem has the AANJ, much nicer than the N1 N2 blocks

Nothing wrong with the breeds, just that nuno's tone is more trebly, breeds are fat.

thanks for the recommendations nano. Time to hunt around for pedals! there are a ton of tubescreamer clones out there though!

out of point but HELLOWEEN's COMING TO TOWN!

Its best to borrow a friend's tubescreamer to try first. Into a totally clean amp it definitely cannot do Nuno's tone. You will need it to get semi distorting.

 

[dtrulez38]

hey guys...i'm currently in US...saw this ad on ebay:
Washburn N4 Nuno Bettencourt model Mint - eBay (item 280204145445 end time Mar-01-08 19:33:31 PST)

u guys think it's worth the price? i thought brand new ones are like 1.6k usd? are there any MIK N4? or all N4's are MIA?

 

[dtrulez38]

anyway..the only difference i see is this one is alder body as opposed to usual swamp ash body. does it make a big deal?

 

[cravenuno]

Nuno Tone

First of all Nuno uses Bill & Becky pickups (the real Bill Lawrence Bill Lawrence Website -- Guitars, Pickups, Musical Products and Accessories) not Bill Lawrence USA pickups, there is a big difference.

For that Pornograffiti sound he used L-500 XL on later albums Punchline L-500 L.

On the Punchline album he mostly used his Paduak N4 definitely adding to the tone of that album.

Nuno uses a vintage Proco Rat pedal for his overdrive sound. The new ones don't sound like the originals, he bought his in the late 70's.

If you used a 93 Paduak N4 with Bill & Becky L-500 L pup with a Proco Rat vintage pedal through a Vibroverb you'd be getting close to Nuno's tone i'd say for the Punchline album. But he uses the pedal through a Marshall also and he gets 'his' tone.

The punchline album is definitely my favourite Nuno tone, and his work on that album was awesome.

Cheers