NEW & COOL
MODERN COMFORTS
With design tweaks and a bespoke Mastery trem, the revamped Novo Miris J becomes a sublime player.
BY DAVE HUNTER
The Mastery trem features an oversized baseplate and a striking lightningbolt–shaped arm.
FROM THE GUITARS sold under his eponymous brand in the 2000s to his current Novo brand, Dennis Fano has presented the guitar world with some of the most distinctive American-made instruments of the past 20 years. The newly revamped Miris J from Novo’s new Nucleus Series is a case in point.
The big-name makers aside, any designer and manufacturer of electric guitars faces a twofold challenge when making inroads into the market: to create designs that look new enough to make their mark, and yet are not so radically unfamiliar as to be unapproachable. Dennis Fano is entering his third decade of threading that needle with stunning ease. After making his past-meets-future, playworn Alt de Facto line in his own small shop for several years, Fano joined up for a time with the Premier Builder’s Guild in California before launching Novo Guitars, now based in Nashville. He’s been going from strength to strength with his designs ever since.