Building The PERFECT Rock Guitar. (Novo Solus Full Build) 

We have been working on and planning this video for Sooooo Long. Really hope you guys and gals enjoy these deep dives into how gear is made and just how hands on the process is for companies like Novo. Also check out the guitar I borrowed from Novo last year that inspired me to order this one - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pqSTLa1knM4.html

"It's a lot of work." Beats it with a hammer.

When he plays it unplugged you can tell how resonant it is. Sounds like an acoustic! Mark of a great guitar

I bought my first custom spec guitar this year, a light relic candy apple red t-style from Fraser guitars in the UK. It was great being able to choose the precise spec , and the end result was so amazing. A truly special and personal guitar. Means so much more than buying a guitar off the shelf (although I have and cherish a few of those too). It’s great to see the love and craft that goes into the build, especially from these smaller manufacturers

Thanks Robert, many don't know what goes into building quality instruments. Congratulations on your new addition.

Cool guitar! Thanks for providing the window in on the build process.

Love watching the assembly. So cool!

Congrats! Would love to see what Uncle Larry thought of the thing. He has so much understanding of classic, vintage guitars, it would be fun to see his take on this beauty! Cheers!!

Congratz! Looks and sounds fantastic

Novo has some great attention to detail! Nice build!

Congrats on the new addition! Looks and sounds amazing!

Very interesting. I’m not into distressed/road worn/relic’ed guitars. I like them shiny and new, and “try” to keep them that way. But the attention to detail, and quality of components, from the ferrules to the screws, impresses me. Oh, and the assembly section is just as important as any of the manufacturing process. Congrats and enjoy!

6:36 “Man with 4 balls cannot walk” _The more you know!_ 😂

Very resonant body shows how responsive this turned out. Congrats, super cool guitar!

Novo has mastered body and headstock shape. The bodies are reminiscent of classic models while being unique, tasteful and beautiful. They're making excellent instruments.

Congrats on the new guitar Robert…great video…well done👍

Great to see the craftsmanship of a great looking and sounding guitar! Congratulations Robert!!

I'm obsessed with the colour

Loved the video, great guitar, and even better content. Keep up the awesome work Rob

Absolutely fascinating. Great video. I live the passion these folks have for what they do. It reflects in their product. The guitar looks and sounds awesome.

Ive been designing and building my own the last 15 years. It's really fun to see how other people make guitars and I also realized Ive never even seen a Novo or any of the offshoots in person. Haven't been to a music store since before Covid. Wanted to see more on that unique neck joint....Maybe a later video?

Congrats on the new Guitar!! Very Nice. 👊😎

Love that guitar, Rob! Awesome color, open pore finish, all the specs! Great video. Loved the inside look at how it’s done.

Congrats on an awesome guitar for new guitar day!!

Congrats!

Awesome! Nice job!!

Dude absolutely perfect color you chose! I love green guitars. Especially mettalic. Outstanding!

Love the Nuno-esque feel riffs at the end bro! 🫡🤘

Fabulous video on making your perfect ruck guitar. Looks and sounds great!!

Man... congrats on this beautiful instrument. One of my grail brands for sure.

Man I love single pickup guitars! Causes so much inspiration to play at a diff level and so many sounds you can get out of 1 pickup! That guitar rules! I hope you have fun with it and rock on!

Man I visited Novo spring of ‘22 and fell absolutely in love with that exact Proto M1 in the showroom. So much so it nearly eclipsed the Serus T custom I came to pickup after a years wait lol . A month later (more like the drive home) I couldn’t take it and ordered an Ocean Turquoise M1 which I traded for a Dennis Signature. But the trade was replaced in short order with the end game M1, an Uff green M1 identical to the prototype I lusted over so long. Congrats my dude and thanks for documenting the ins and outs of the current Novo operation 🙂👍

Sounds very distinct , i feel the 60s sound. God bless you, brother. ❤

really sweet guitar! sounds great, looks great!

Novo guitars are amazing. And they play as great as they look. And as for any criticism I see in comments about distressed guitars, play what you like. Enough already. Some of us like to play a guitar that feels played "out of the box" and don't have 20 years to play 6 hours a day and gig to "distress" our guitar naturally. A distressed neck is so much better than a lacquered finished new guitar neck. Also, it is nice to not have to worry about putting that first ding on the guitar. So, good for you if you are able to play constantly, but for those of us weekend hacks who have 40+ hour a week jobs and children to tend to, it just isn't always possible. I'm jealous and happy you get to play so often! There, I said it! Please let us have a relic'd guitar without having to experience the chiding. Can we please have the feel and look of a worn in instrument without the condescending..."Play it into a relic!"....just one time? The argument is actually boring now. Novo's are incredible...

Light and loud is the absolute pinnacle of guitar. My first thought when I picked up my now favorite guitar (a Maybach lester) was just that + 'wow this really sounds like a guitar, it's got every frequency'

Congrats man, beautiful guitar.

Very impressed by the care and precision of the assembler. Her skills are outstanding. She deserves a raise.🇨🇦😎👍

Sounds awesome,,, congrats!🤘🤘✌️

I equate it to jeans,sometimes you want to wear “brand new” jeans but you can always appreciate and buy these days already worn and ripped jeans and they feel better. I’m a fan of both. Great company,I’m just south a few minutes in Franklin

A fkn rock and a railroad spike to distress it!!! Now that’s fkn ROCK AND ROLL 🎸 congrats brother! It’s amazing!

Nice shop and great a philosophy of attention to detail.

Robert! Duuude this is so killer! Congratulations on the new tone monster! 🤘🤘

Congrats Robert great new axe.

Really liked this video!!

Great video!

My Novo Serus J is my favorite guitar .. immediate connection the minute I saw and played it. Plays wonderfully and sounds fantastic. Best neck on any guitar I’ve ever owned.

The secret ingredient is the "Tone Sauce" added during the painting step. At 8:38 you can see it on the shelf.

I’ve had my Novo Serus J for almost a year & I absolutely love it! Also, their philosophy is distress the guitar a bit so the player doesn’t worry so much about getting a ding in the guitar. Granted, some people like it to be more distressed. It’s just a look. I really don’t understand why some people get so wound up about it. I look at it like it’s another shade of a color or something….. some people want a light green, some want dark, another one wants a neon green with halo-flake. It’s all good.

Very cool guitar. Love the color and the light aging. It sounds amazing, too. I’m curious, did you request that they not fill the pours in the wood, maybe to save on the weight or increase the resonance, or is that their standard approach to finishing their bodies? I kind of dig it, but that’s the biggest reason I’ve never done my own finish work on any of my Tele builds. Pour filling and all the sanding that goes with it, can take a lot of time. This is much more straight forward. Thanks for sharing. Love the guitar.

Congrats. I have just changed strings on my classic guitar. It sound good - was made 1972 in Germany from Framus. My e-guitars are also from Framus build in Germany. It is not important which guitar you play, it is important to fun with the instrument(s). I have had new expensive well made tools - I sold it some days later... Enjoy playing!

I flew to Nashville last month and visited Caters Vintage Guitars. Tried loads of guitars up to 70k price range, but both Novo they had were the only ones I'd have bought. Amazing work. And they are really loud and resonate enourmosly.

That was fun. Thank you Robert Baker…

Beautiful sounding and looking guitar!!! 🎸🔥🎸🔥🎸

Very sweet guitar dude!!!

Sweet guitar man! That Jr look and tone is killer!

Wow amazing sound

Sounds good this one !!!!

Bullitt Green! Congrats brother

Very nice! ❤

Those Novos definitely have a sound of their own.

Paint room guys are always so cool on guitar build videos no matter what brand

Great job and really cool video. I want to test drive a Idris HSS 💯 coming to Nashville soon

My favorite guitar company ❤ I got lucky a few years ago and scored an F1 for a killer price - I loved it so much that I ordered a P2! I can’t stress enough how great these guitars feel and sound. If you ever get a chance to play one you’ll get an idea of what people who love them are raving about.

Great video, Rob. My favorite thing is seeing how the sausage is made.

Great video, Robert. Definitely an interesting insight into Novo. Nice to see a small, relatively affordable guitar maker’s processes. And one year for an employee guitar? Where’s the application?

Sounds great RU-vid Dude!

Love it!!!

12:05 Dudes rock is getting reliced

Sounds wicked. I’m sure paid top dollar for it too. Out of most folks range I’d expect.

Great video! I love how one person takes care of the hardware and setup. Super fat tone on the lower sounding strings! And I can really hear that extra 5% on the upper strings! Would have love to know how much your’s cost.

When I see a new Robert Baker video drop, I jump on it… you’re always really relaxed, authentic and honest. As for guitar body shapes… I got a Harley Benton 12 string that “imitates” aspects of a Rickenbacker while still being its own thing. I could NOT afford the Ric model… I like the HB shape BETTER than the Ric that inspired it. With imagination, there are still plenty of usable and attractive shapes out there… the Bob Weir D’Angelico is a great example.

That guitar looks amazing. I need one of those.

These have been on my radar for a while… so not my aesthetic, but they have an undeniable vibe. They sound amazing, but I wasn’t sure if seeing them onstage at Kings of Leon or the National played by demigods through ridiculous rigs affected my opinion. Loved hearing all of the unplugged stuff.

Man that is such a nice guitar and sounds awesome. Thanks for a cool video and take care sir.

Congratulations! That really is one bad mama jama! 🎸🤘

I have a Miris P2. , best guitar I have ever played, comfortable and rings like a bell !

I like your new style! Nashville Rock!!

Thanks for that documentary 🎸

so awesome!

It's a supercool guitar but I don't understand the price tag on boutique guitars...on boutique anything IMHO. If I had never had hands on experience with building guitars, amps and such I might would think differently. You deserve this guitar this guitar Robert. Your one of my favorite guitarists on RU-vid that I enjoy watching and listening to. Not only because of how great of a guitar player you are, but because you have a very humble and kind spirit. Thanks for sharing the journey with us!

Assembler: I applaud you for being able to continue working while having someone ask you questions - you have more patience than I BUT I have one major complaint….you cannot have have “multiple favorite parts!” 😂 Are you one of those people with 6 best friends? ☠️ So what’s you actual favorite part?

That rock machine is gonna age sooooo nicely!

This sounds awesome! What amp are you using?

Welcome to Club Novo 👏

Hey man, congrats on your new guitar looks good. Sounds good and you’re playing is always amazing. Happy for you. I’m gonna check them out myself. I get why you did it but I don’t care for that aging process crap myself, but I understand it. I’d rather beat the shit out of it myself lolanyway again good luck with it

My favorite part of the whole video is the music that sounds like Beverly Hills Cop. I was waiting for Eddie Murphy to pop in.

That sounds awesome! Pine ftw

Damn that sounds nice.

Thanks Robert 🎸👏👏💯💯💜🤍💙❤️

It looks like a 70's Tesco

I Dig it!!

Sweet guitar Robert

Good Looking Guitar

It just goes to show how different two players can be. Your Novo, while so exquisite as to make me jealous, is nevertheless nearly the polar opposite of the perfect guitar for me! You make money with your guitars, and gear can be actual investments in your world. In mine, gear is an indulgence. That means that the acme (not Acme, cartoon fans!) guitar for me includes a very low barrier to entry and a solid core product upon which to build. I have two guitars in particular that my playing style seems to gel with more than the others, and they are very similar in a number of ways: 24 jumbo (or super jumbo!) frets on a rosewood (or fake rosewood) fretboard, 2 humbuckers, super Strat silhouette. After that, they diverge considerably, with a huge price delta and the fact that the relatively expensive one is a very hard tail -- Tone Pros with strings through the body -- and set-through neck construction and the cheap one has a Floyd Rose-branded double-locking vibrato system and (Wait for it!) NECK-THROUGH CONSTRUCTION for less than two-fifths of the price of the more pricey one! These two guitars -- with perhaps one other that features (You guessed it!) a bolt-on neck -- are my go-to arsenal for those times when I just want to play and not worry to much about how I'm going to pull things off. I just do them, and if I'm warmed up, most of them work and I don't waste much time feeling bad about the ones that don't. At least I had the guts to TRY them! One thing about your Novo that is clearly superior is that you can still get those or something like it. The expensive guitar is from 2003 and is long discontinued, and the cheap one I got on Amazon last year during the Christmas rush, and I've been looking for them again ever since, because I'd seen where they were also supposed to come in a darker color. It might be nice to have the same guitar in a completely different look -- but they've vanished from the face of the Internet as far as I can tell. You're paying more money these days than I did for anything resembling my cheap neck-through, and you're not going to get my results ... nor will you want them, as they're for ME. I keep my eyes open, though, because for me, the best next guitar will almost certainly be something that I can make special with my skills and tastes. In this way as well as in many others, being a guitarist is a VISUAL and a FUNCTIONAL art as well as a MUSICAL one. It can be very fulfilling to make a guitar into a good-playing, good-looking axe, then to PLAY said axe (hopefully well😎)!

I have a Solus H2. It’s hands down the best LP tones I’ve ever gotten. I personally hate the 4 knob layout. Novo solved it. I hate heavy guitars. Novo made thing thing feather light and crazy resonant. This is my third Novo (Sectis, Miris, Solus)Love love love the Solus!!

Pretty similar to my PRS Vela

Has anyone tried using balsa wood as a guitar body? Balsa is usually known as a very soft wood for model planes and surfboard cores. However; there many grades of balsa; some which are very hard, but still light weight and very resonant.

Nice guitar! Are you favoring P-90s more nowadays? You doing any session work since moving to Nashville?

I’ve often wondered if an open pore finish lends to a louder resonance unplugged. Never owned an open pore, so i have no idea