What would happen if the iconic electric guitar brands of the 50s and 60s were created under one roof, in one factory? If the designers of Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, or Gretsch sat at one drafting table and exchanged experiences?

Dennis Fano's work is a constant attempt to answer this question. This friendly builder from New Jersey has written himself into the history of boutique guitars as an innovator, wonderful designer, and creator of extremely comfortable instruments. Today's post is a short journey into a world where humility and respect for the instrument's history combine with creative restlessness and a desire to challenge the status quo.

The Story of Dennis Fano

Unlike many famous guitar builders, Dennis Fano didn't start as a guitarist, but as abassist. Moreover, as he admits, he's not a very good instrumentalist. He began his adventure with lutherie in 1984, when he received a Harmony bass guitar from his mother. He modified it countless times to understand how it worked. Then, as he recalls, he built a few more instruments for friends from ready-made kits.

When he started his first part-time job, he used the saved money to buy a 1966 Fender Jazz Bass, emulating his idol, John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin. This guitar also went through a series of mutations at Dennis's hands, including conversion to 8 strings and several refinishes. However, he eventually restored it to its original condition using the original parts, which he fortunately kept throughout countless modifications.

During his experiments, he encountered a problem: he wasn't able to make an 8-string nut by himself. With this task, he ended up at Darell Gilbert's in his native New Jersey. The chance acquaintance resulted in learning the first skills in lutherie under the eye of an experienced specialist.

Gilbert joined Matt Umanov Guitars in New York a bit later. When the crew needed a third employee, Dennis Fano naturally took that position. Alongside experienced luthiers, he learned the secrets of guitar repair. During his practice, he quite by accident got contact information for his idol, Andy Partridge from XTC. He pulled himself together and proposed to Andy to build an instrument, whatever he might dream of. After exchanging designs sent by fax, an instrument with the proud name "Plankenstein" finally came to life, and Andy was delighted. The musician didn't know then that it was Dennis's first guitar, built from scratch. Partridge even wrote a "jingle" for Fano Guitars - "I'm playing my Fano".

Dennis spent over 5 years at the Umanov Guitars workshop, repairing and modifying instruments, until 2001. Finally, he decided it was time to move on, caught the wind in his sails, and sailed into the open waters of his own business. He moved to Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, to work on his own designs.

Fano Guitars

Looking at the facts, Dennis never worked in a workshop where guitars were built, and despite that, even his first instrument appealed to a professional musician.

He quickly gained recognition as a builder of boutique instruments of very high quality and incredible precision. The first creations made in a small workshop in Fleetwood laid the foundations for the Fano "Alt de facto" series, which turned out to be a commercial success. Dennis's inspirations were guitars from the 50s, but he gave them elements that in his opinion, "made sense". Dennis often repeats that Fano guitars are classic patterns with a "twist" - different wood, pickups, bridges. Non-standard mixes of elements we know and love, but nobody mixed them before.

Alt De Facto Series

The original name of the first Fano guitar series was "Artifact", but it conflicted with the line that Vince Cunetto was working on. Dennis therefore changed the name to something that sounded similar - "Alt De Facto". The first of the models in this line is the JM6. With an offset body equipped with P-90 pickups beloved by the creator and a tune-o-matic bridge. It's a twisted variation on the theme of a Jazzmaster crossed with a Les Paul Junior. If we look closer at this guitar, we'll notice a compound radius fingerboard and a hybrid headstock, another testament to the innovation of Fano guitars already in the early period. It's impossible to miss the aged finish. We're talking about designs from the mid-2000s, barely 10 years after relic appeared in the guitar world largely thanks to the aforementioned Vince Cunetto. Dennis had the proverbial "balls" for truly bold design decisions. If you're looking for guitars made by him personally, you need to search for vintages up to 2009.

In 2009, Fano brings the brand under the wings of PBG (Premier Builders Guild), which aims to produce more "price-accessible" versions of boutique instruments. Production moves to California, although Fano himself remains in Pennsylvania and makes individual instruments on special order. One curiosity is the presence of Gene Baker as head of Fano Guitars production in California. Gene is another cult figure who deserves his own video, but it would be a shame not to mention his B3 guitars here.

Everything good, and maybe even too good to be cheap, ends quickly, and in 2014 the paths of Dennis and the Fano brand under the PBG banner diverge, which gives birth to something new - the Novo brand. PBG sells the Fano brand two years later to other hands - to Desert Son Musical Instruments, where it continues to work, but the legend of these guitars fades a bit, although they are still good instruments. Innovation unfortunately leaves with the creator.

Novo Guitars

The name Novo is the result of brainstorming in one brain. Dennis wanted the name to come from Latin because his ancestors are partly from Italy. The name starts with "NO", which is where FaNO ends. Like his surname, it has four letters and ends with the letter "O". All this made sense, especially since Novo itself means "anew" and has a good resonance for another start.

For Dennis, Novo is a chance to return to designing and his original concept of a mishmash of guitar designs with much more experience and a clean slate. He creates the first line of guitars called Sectis (currently called Serus). He is still guided by the desire to draw from guitar classics and combine their various features, but with a transfer into a more modern form. From the very beginning, the guitars are also aged. Another characteristic feature of Novo guitars, which accompanies them to this day, is roasted wood, supplied by the California company Tempered Tonewoods. In retrospect, this was an innovative approach, considering that today neither aging nor roasted woods are something common, although much more accepted than in 2014.

One of the favorite wood species used at Novo is pine. Not alder, ash, or mahogany, but roasted pine. The wood from which Leo Fender built the first Telecasters, but abandoned it due to its softness, which caused guitars to quickly acquire scratches and dents. Since Novo guitars are aged anyway, the aspect of dents doesn't matter. Dennis really reaches further than many other guitar builders who stayed close to classic designs.

Currently, Dennis works in the factory mainly on weekends, when there's no one there and he can focus on creativity. Apart from creating his own designs, in the guitar building process he most enjoys sanding - work considered a task for beginning builders. Even in this seemingly simple aspect of creating guitars, Dennis found something unique - thanks to a special abrasive technique that brings out the grain of pine boards under a thin layer of nitro lacquer, Novo guitars have a unique appearance.

Fano and Novo - Together Again

In 2025, just before the NAMM show, the guitar world was swept by the news that Novo and Fano would join forces under a new banner - Psonic Design Lab. The new company will combine the forces of Fano's current British owners and the Novo crew with headquarters in Nashville in such a way as to focus on innovation and production quality. The intercontinental cooperation between Great Britain and the USA is soon to bear fruit with the first joint projects. Currently, both companies are moving production under one roof, and what will happen next - time will tell.

What Distinguishes Dennis Fano's Guitars?

Guitars created by Dennis Fano are a phenomenon. Personally, the term "postmodern" speaks to me. Fano's designs, especially in his second brand, Novo, are a deconstruction of classic patterns, a denial of everything that has been accepted in the guitar world as "classic" and a redefinition of the guitar from scratch. Consciously creating collages of guitar patterns enriched with his own inspirations, he created guitars with amazing tonal properties, unique appearance, and feel. Lightweight, perfectly balanced, dynamic, with attention to detail and lying in the hand from the first second - these guitars are meant to play and delight. To appreciate their qualities, as with any work of art, you need time and attention. Like the subtle lines of the Miris J, in which the slender shape of the body is cut by thick, bold lines of the pickguard and resonant opening, while the contrast is provided by cold metal elements. The longer we look at these guitars, the more we realize the amount of work the creator puts into his works combining the beauty of design with true utility. It's hard to find similar examples of equally innovative lutherie art in the guitar world, which is also a pure custom shop.