Nuno Bettencourt is unfortunately no stranger when it comes to electric guitar thefts, having recently discussed the time his Washburn N8 double-neck had been pinched straight from the stage during an arena gig.
Now, in a new clip posted by Masters of Shred, the virtuoso has recalled yet another example of when one of his Washburn signatures was stolen – this time from a secure storage lock-up facility.
The guitar in question was Nuno’s N4 Padauk, which (as the name implies) featured an unusual padauk neck and body.
An early addition to Bettencourt’s Washburn arsenal, it can be seen on the cover of an old Young Guitar magazine issue from June 1993, and was used on both Extreme’s III Sides To Every Story tour and during the recording of Waiting For The Punchline.
Notably, Nuno’s OG Padauk distinguished itself from other similarly spec’d N4 signatures by two dark stripes embedded into the wood – something that became crucial in its identification later, after it was unfortunately stolen in 1995.
“That was stolen from a storage unit, and we found the body,” Bettencourt explains. “Somebody in a trailer park was selling the body. It might have been on Craigslist. At least it wasn't a real body.
“I don’t even think they knew [what it was]. It’s interesting, because my Padauk... they’re all reddish and they all look kind of the same. Mine, for some reason, in the wood had two dark stripes right outside framing the pickup.
“This guy in the valley in LA saw this thing and was like, ‘Wow, the only other body I’d seen that had these stripes…’ He was looking at magazines and A/Bing them.
“He reached out to me and was like, ‘I found this body, and they were selling it at this trailer park.’ Then he gave it back to me.”
As such, the story had a rather happy – if somewhat grizzly – ending, even if it sounds as though the rest of the N4 Padauk was ultimately lost. As Bettencourt stresses in the clip, his stolen guitars always seem to find their way back to him.
Fortunately, his N8 double-neck, by comparison, found its way back to him in one piece.
