“I felt some responsibility to keep guitar playing alive”: Nuno Bettencourt once vowed to keep Eddie Van Halen’s guitar fire burning – now he’s using his custom Washburn ‘Bumblebee’ to cover Van Halen with Extreme

Nuno Bettencourt has been using his custom-made ‘Bumblebee’-inspired Washburn N4 to cover Van Halen classics while on the road with Extreme.

Bettencourt donned the black-and-yellow-striped six-string during a show at MTELUS, Montreal, late last month to rip through Mean Street. The instrument was made as a tribute to the late great, offering a fresh take on the virtuoso's famed Bumblebee.