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Demo: The Novo Solus is a lightly relic’d single-pickup beauty
The brand’s newest offset-bodied guitar is, like all Novo instruments, breathtaking.
NAMM 2020: We stopped by the Novo booth to learn a little about the Solus.
Of particular note is the tempered maple neck, which comes with an incredibly beefy C-carve, lending it a chunky yet comfortable feel in the hand. The neck also sports a 9.5-inch-radius rosewood fretboard, clay dots, 22 frets and an unbleached bone nut.
The guitar’s slab body is made of tempered pine, and the version we took a look at comes fitted with a single-coil pickup in a T-style bridge plate. Other appointments include Kluson vintage single line tuners and Emerson pots for the master volume and tone controls.
The biggest news from Novo this year, however, doesn’t even involve the brand itself. It will be lending its name to Rivolta’s line of guitars – the latter will now be branded as “Rivolta By Novo”, which will appear on all headstocks from January 2020 onwards.
Read our interview with Novo’s Dennis Fano, where we chat to him about his love of offsets, and what inspired his approach to guitar design.
“The offset is having its moment in the sun,” Fano told us. “I think the introduction of the Mastery Bridge and Vibrato has had a lot to do with that. It’s that good, so a lot of builders are taking a traditional approach with their offset builds. I’ve always viewed the [Novo] Serus design as a platform or a jumping-off point. Its large, offset body actually adapts really well to a wide variety of configurations and playing styles.”
Find out more at novoguitars.com.