Guitaripedia

Every guitar has a story.

Washburn

N4

Washburn could copy Nuno Bettencourt’s guitar down to the last ding. It couldn’t copy the years in it.

Before anyone had heard of an N4, Nuno Bettencourt put his own guitar together from parts: an unfinished Schecter body cut down to fit him, a Warmoth neck, a Strat headstock turned upside down, and the only pickup the shop had in stock.

Introduced
1990
Type
Solidbody electric
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

All guitarsMore Washburn

Washburn N4 in natural korina finish with gold Floyd Rose and Stephens Extended Cutaway against orange cloth
Photo: StefN4N8 / Wikimedia Commons / Public domainWashburn N4 in natural korina; gold Floyd and Stephens Extended Cutaway; orange cloth lean.

The short version

  1. 1990

    The N4

    Washburn puts “N4 (Nuno Bettencourt)” in its catalog at $1,199.90. Release dates run from mid-to-late 1990 to December.

  2. 1990

    The first twenty

    Luthier Stephen Davies builds the first 20 production N4s.

  3. 1991

    Chicago

    Some bodies now come from California and necks from a Chicago cabinet shop, put together by Washburn or Davies.

  4. 2009

    Rihanna

    Nuno becomes Rihanna’s music director and guitarist, and the N4 goes with him.

  5. 2015

    The Authentic

    By now Washburn sells a ding-for-ding copy of Nuno’s own beat-up N4.

  6. 2021

    Number one comes home

    Nuno buys the first production N4.

  7. 2025

    Nuno Guitars

    The Washburn partnership ends, and the N4 continues under his own name.

Side A

A1

A guitar from the parts bin

Before there was an N4, there was a guitar Nuno Bettencourt put together himself.

He had an unfinished Schecter body, and he had a friend cut it down smaller to suit his size. He bolted on a Warmoth neck with a Strat headstock flipped upside down. When he went to buy a pickup, the only one the shop had in stock was a Bill Lawrence. He put it in and kept it.

That parts guitar is where every N4 comes from. What mattered was that it was his: cut to his size, with the pickup he happened to find.

A2

No heel, no lump

Washburn put it in the 1990 catalog as the “N4 (Nuno Bettencourt)” at $1,199.90. When it actually came out is fuzzy. Some say mid-to-late 1990, others say December.

The part that makes it an N4 and not just another superstrat is where the neck meets the body. Most bolt-on necks have a big square heel back there, and when you climb to the top frets your hand runs into it. A Seattle luthier named Stephen Davies had patented a different joint: five bolts, curved, with the heel carved away. Washburn licensed it. With that joint, your thumb can stay on the back of the neck all the way up to the 22nd fret. For a player who spends as much time up there as Nuno does, that’s the whole guitar.

The rest is almost stubbornly simple. Alder body, maple neck, ebony board. A Seymour Duncan ’59 in the neck, a Bill Lawrence in the bridge. One volume knob, one three-way switch, no tone control. When Washburn later wanted something else on the signature, Nuno told them to put Bill Lawrence back in business instead.

A3

The first twenty

Davies built the first 20 production N4s himself in 1990, with Kahler tremolos and a Seymour Duncan JB in the neck where later ones had the ’59. From 1991 the work spread out, with some bodies from California and necks from a cabinet shop in Chicago, assembled by Washburn or by Davies. A padauk version turned up in 1993. Later came limited runs, a Japan-only edition, a korina-and-koa one, and eventually the N4 Vintage, an aged alder version that Washburn sold as the everyday N4 for most of the 2000s and 2010s.

One warning about records. Extreme’s Pornograffitti came out in August 1990, before the catalog guitar was in shops, so don’t hang that one on a production N4. And the guitar in the “Decadence Dance” video is usually given as an N3, a prototype. It’s Nuno’s guitar story, just not this model’s.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • $1,199.90

    List price in Washburn’s 1990 catalog.

  • 20

    Production N4s Stephen Davies built in 1990, the first run.

  • 5

    Bolts in the heel-less neck joint, so your hand doesn’t hit a lump up high.

  • 1

    Knob. A volume. No tone control on the standard recipe.

Side B

B1

Cloning a limb

This is my favorite bit. Nuno played his own N4 so hard for so long that it stopped looking like anything in the catalog. So Washburn did the obvious thing and copied it.

The N4 Authentic, reviewed in 2015, was a ding-for-ding replica of Nuno’s worn guitar, right down to the mismatched tuners and the extra tuning gadget in its own cavity. It listed at $3,999.90. In 2019 Washburn tried again with the 4N, another clone of the same beat-up guitar, with a thinner fingerboard and a deeper neck.

Nuno talked about the original in 2013. He said it was “like a limb.” Washburn had laser-cloned it, and the years on the real one still won.

A laser can copy every ding. It can’t copy how they got there.

B2

Taking it home

The N4 kept working. From 2009 to 2013 Nuno was Rihanna’s music director and guitarist, and he turned up on those gigs with an N4. He carried the same silhouette onto the Generation Axe tours.

In late 2021 he bought number 901, the very first of Davies’s twenty, from Todd Cage. And on 30 September 2025 he launched Nuno Guitars and ended the Washburn partnership.

Washburn built a lot of N4s, and some very careful copies of the one Nuno actually played. None of them had his years in it. When he left, the N4 went with him, under his own name.

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 1990

    Nuno Bettencourt

    His own N4

    Built the first one from parts, co-designed the production model, and wore his own into the ground.

  • 1990

    Stephen Davies

    Builder, and the neck joint

    The Seattle luthier behind the heel-less five-bolt joint, and the builder of the first 20 production N4s.

  • 1990

    Bill Lawrence

    The bridge pickup

    His was the only pickup the shop had in stock when Nuno built his first guitar. Nuno kept it.

  • 2021

    Todd Cage

    The first production N4

    Sold Nuno the first of Davies’s twenty production N4s.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

Reverse headstock, one volume, and a heel-less five-bolt cutaway — Washburn’s N4, Nuno Bettencourt’s 1990 signature, not an N2.

Body
Alder superstrat, reverse six-in-line headstock. Stephens Extended Cutaway at the treble heel.
Neck
Bolt-on birdseye maple, 5-bolt Stephens Extended Cutaway
Fingerboard
Ebony, 22 jumbo, pearl dots. Guitar Center’s leftover Vintage table prints 24. Mix flagged. Do not average.
Scale
25.5" (648 mm on the 1990 Washburn catalog). Mix flagged.
Pickups
Seymour Duncan ’59 (SH-1N) neck; Bill Lawrence L-500 / L500XL bridge, HH
Hardware
Floyd Rose Original / Floyd Rose 1000 Series Original on the last Vintage; Grover 18:1. Early Davies: Kahler.
Electronics
Master volume; 3-way on the lower horn. No tone on the standard recipe. 2016 catalog: volume push/pull. Mix flagged.
Finish
Natural oil / vintage matte. Prismatic body sticker on many.
Nut
Locking, 1.69" (43 mm). Mix flagged.
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Classic living example = N4 Vintage (USA Custom Shop alder; last typical Washburn N4). Washburn’s own 2026 site no longer lists it (fetched 18 September 2026). Wikipedia period 1990–2025. Leftover dealer new still exists. N2 / N24 are import siblings, not this table. 4N (2019) is a replica of Nuno’s worn personal guitar, not the catalog N4. Nuno Guitars took the N4 name 30 September 2025 — another maker, not this plate. Mixed inch/mm flagged.

Construction

The job was a smaller, faster superstrat with the last frets as open as the first. Nuno Bettencourt built that guitar before Washburn had a model number for it. MusicRadar: unfinished Schecter body, Warmoth neck, reverse Strat headstock. At The Music Zoo: he had a friend cut the body down for his size, and the shop only had a Bill Lawrence in stock. He kept it. When Washburn later wanted something else on the signature, he told them to put Bill Lawrence back in business.

Washburn put it in the 1990 catalog as N4 (Nuno Bettencourt): solid alder, maple/ebony, Duncan pickups, original Floyd, 648 mm scale / 43 mm nut, list $1,199.90. Wikipedia: introduction mid-late 1990. MusicRadar: released December 1990. Keep both. This plate starts in 1990.

The thing that is actually this guitar is the neck joint. Seattle luthier Stephen Davies designed the Stephens Extended Cutaway — a five-bolt curved, heel-less bolt-on, U.S. patent 4,856,403. Washburn licensed it. Thumb stays on the back of the neck through 22. It is not a Jackson neck-through (jackson-soloist). It is not a Charvel San Dimas four-bolt (charvel-san-dimas). Superstrat is a genre label, not a Washburn SKU.

Not an N2. N2 is the import sibling: rosewood board, standard four-bolt, Washburn neck pickup, Lawrence in the bridge. Same reverse silhouette, different instrument. N24 is the later import with a Stephens joint on some runs. N3 is a prototype/one-off story — Wikipedia puts an N3 in Extreme’s “Decadence Dance” video. That is not this table.

Recipe after the first run: alder, maple neck, ebony board, reverse headstock, Duncan ’59 in the neck, Bill Lawrence L-500 in the bridge, one volume, 3-way on the lower horn, 22 frets, 25.5". Wikipedia: standard N4s used a Washburn/Schaller trem; Vintage, Relic, and “2.0” models got the Original Floyd Nuno actually played. MusicRadar on the Vintage: Lawrence through-mounted to the back with a pair of screws. Buzz Feiten intonation is catalog from the mid-2000s (2005 catalog; Wikipedia). Oil finish. The prismatic sticker is optional on 1990s N4s and N2s, permanent on the later Vintage (MusicRadar).

First twenty, 1990. Guitar World, 27 January 2022: Stephen Davies built 20 production N4s that year, serials 901–920, per a Washburn letter of authenticity. Kahler. Maple/ebony. Alder body Nuno designed. Wikipedia: those twenty had a Seymour Duncan JB in the neck, not a ’59. No molded N4 case until 1991. Serial 901 is the first of the production run. Nuno bought it in late 2021.

Then Chicago takes the line. Wikipedia, citing Terry Atkins: from July 1991 some bodies from La Jolla, necks from a Chicago cabinet shop, assembled at Washburn or Davies. 1992 catalog: USA N4 alder $1,499.90, padauk $1,599.90. Wikipedia: padauk N4 early 1993. Citation-needed on that page for the III Sides to Every Story tour claim. Keep the year. Swamp ash as N4E-SA. Chicago Custom Shop is the 1990s–2010s home of the USA guitar.

N4 Vintage is the aged alder USA guitar Washburn sold as the living N4 for most of the 2000s and 2010s: birdseye maple, ebony, Duncan ’59 / Lawrence L-500, Floyd, Stephens joint, Grover 18:1, vintage matte. Guitar Center leftover (sold out this pass): $2,799. That is the table above.

N4 Authentic is not the Vintage. Guitar World (Chris Gill, 16 January 2015): ding-for-ding replica of Nuno’s own N4 — mismatched Gotoh/Grover tuners, EVH D-Tuna in its own rout, list $3,999.90. Same silhouette. Different object.

4N, Winter NAMM 2019. Guitar World: thinner ebony board, deeper neck, redesigned contours, Floyd Original with Kahler nut, expected $2,599. Washburn’s 4N USA page is marked past product. It clones Nuno’s worn personal guitar, not the catalog N4.

30 September 2025. Guitar World: Nuno Guitars, and the end of the Washburn partnership. The N4 continues under his name — his design, his signature. Washburn’s 2026 homepage has no N4. Leftover Vintage and Authentic still turn up as new at dealers. They are Washburn leftover, not a Nuno Guitars cart.

Players

This is a signature line. The documented player is Nuno Bettencourt. Do not recruit N2 owners, Jackson Soloist players, or Ibanez JEM/RG users. Do not hang Extreme’s whole catalog on a production N4.

Nuno Bettencourt. Co-designer. Homemade Schecter/Warmoth first (MusicRadar; Music Zoo). Production N4 from 1990. Guitarist (2013): the original N4 is “like a limb”; Washburn laser-cloned it and the years still won. Pornograffitti (August 1990) predates MusicRadar’s December catalog date — do not pin that record to a production N4. Wikipedia: N3 in the “Decadence Dance” video. Keep the split. The N4 is the stage and later-studio guitar people mean. Guitar Center / Washburn copy: music director and guitar for Rihanna, 2009–2013. Guitar Interactive: he has been turning up with an N4 on those gigs too. Generation Axe tours with the same silhouette. Serial 901 (Davies 1990, first production) he bought from Todd Cage in late 2021 (Guitar World). That is one object. Authentic is the factory copy of the worn main guitar, not that main guitar.

Also known to play stays short. Washburn copy repeats “thousands of musicians.” None invented here.

Rarity

You can still find a leftover USA N4 Vintage sold as new. Washburn is not building it. Nuno Guitars is another factory on this silhouette. It is not a 1990 Washburn.

Washburn did not publish N4 yearly totals. None invented. Serials date a guitar. They don’t count a year.

What is actually thinner: the Davies 20 of 1990 (901–920), named by Washburn’s own letter. Wikipedia: six gloss-black Davies bodies in 1991 (R. Weikum). Mourning Widows: Wikipedia 100, Japan-only, signed and numbered. N4XX: MusicPlayers.com 100, Chicago, korina/koa, MSRP $7,500. Wikipedia “roughly 15” sapele, 2009. Those are labeled limiteds, not a census of the mainline alder N4.

Nuno’s worn main N4, Authentic’s source object, and serial 901 are unique. They are not a vintage N4.

Value

Informal estimate, 18 September 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask vs sold labeled. Celebrity lots are not-comps. No invented medians or factory counts beyond the named 20 / 100s. Period $1,199.90 (1990 Washburn catalog) is 1990 money, not 2026 street.

New street. Washburn.com: no N4 this pass. Leftover USA N4 Vintage: Guitar Center $2,799, sold out; Reverb brand-new dealer $2,799 (Drum City GuitarLand). Authentic leftover asks, not a current cart: Music Zoo $2,699–$3,299; L.A. Music $4,749.99; guitarguitar £3,259. 4N 2019 expected $2,599 (Guitar World) — historical, Washburn past product. Nuno Guitars N4 is a different maker’s street. Not this table.

Used modern. Reverb Price Guide widgets on two Vintage USA listings this pass: $1,698–$2,158 and $2,033–$2,474 (Good to Mint). Dedicated guide page bot-blocked. Named used ask: 2010s Vintage Matte $2,000. Do not average those bands. Import N2/N24 used is a different, cheaper guitar.

Vintage / collectible. Davies-era asks, not hammers: 1991 serial 001 listing ended at $8,500; 1991 Davies ask $14,677.38. Treat as asks. Serial 901 is Nuno’s object. Not a comp. N4XX (100) and Mourning Widows (100) are labeled limiteds; no 2024–26 sold table isolated here. Do not invent five-figure medians.

See also

  • ibanez-jem — Vai’s 1987 monkey-grip signature superstrat; not an N4
  • jackson-soloist — Grover’s neck-through superstrat; not Davies’s heel-less bolt-on
  • charvel-san-dimas — bolt-on superstrat from the same era; pointed Charvel headstock, not a reverse-headstock Washburn

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.