My newest Zemaitis guitar and all modded up!

[rockabilly69]

Finally got the new guitar modded the way I like it. I love the look and especially the feel of Zemaitis guitars, the necks and fretwork are sublime, but I really love modding them to sound as great as they look, so here's my modded Zemaitis A22MFP BK and what I did to it...

1. Puretone Output Jack (double contact on the tip for better contact)

2. Switchcraft 3-way switch (the stock switch was flimsy)

3. Armadillo Machineworks 3-way switch tip (heavier better feel with the new 3-way switch and hand turned aluminum)

4. Gotoh 21:1 Luxury engraved tuners (hands down the best tuners of any I've tried, and engraved, so looks good with the Zemaitis)

5. Russian PIO caps .022 bridge, .015 neck (just some extras I had lying around that sounded good with the pickups)

6. VIP 500K pots (hands down the best pots I've ever used, very tight tolerances and smooth as silk to turn)

7. Tyson Tone Lab Precious and Grace pickups (Absolutely killer PAF style pickups)

[3notes]

Oh wow. Never seen anything like it. Closet thing I've seen is pobbly a Paisley Fender.

Is that a russian made guitar.??

That thing is gorgeous. I am very curious of the cost but it is priceless.

As time moves on I'm developing a taste for guitars that are 'different.' I love tailpieces.

This guitar posted up by the OP is a wow guitar. It is Awesome. Give that thing some love.....

[Chickee]

That is a serious Hot Rod! It must be a blast to play. Just beautiful all over, inside and out. Now, put some miles on there.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by 3notes

Oh wow. Never seen anything like it. Closet thing I've seen is pobbly a Paisley Fender.

Is that a russian made guitar.??

That thing is gorgeous. I am very curious of the cost but it is priceless.

As time moves on I'm developing a taste for guitars that are 'different.' I love tailpieces.

This guitar posted up by the OP is a wow guitar. It is Awesome. Give that thing some love.....

Zemaitis Guitars were originally built in England, but the original creator of the Zemaitis guitars, Tony Zemaitis, passed away a few years back. After he died his wife and son licensed a Japanese builder to make replicas. They come in a few different levels of build quality, with some of his guitars being built in Korea and some being built in Japan. The ones from Japan are really high quality, and that’s where this one was built.

https://www.musicradar.com/news/guit...guitars-643347

https://zemaitisguitarcompany.com/

[PTony]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

Zemaitis Guitars were originally built in England, but the original creator of the Zemaitis guitars, Tony Zemaitis, passed away a few years back. After he died his wife and son licensed a Japanese builder to make replicas. They come in a few different levels of build quality, with some of his guitars being built in Korea and some being built in Japan. The ones from Japan are really high quality, and that’s where this one was built.

https://www.musicradar.com/news/guit...guitars-643347

https://zemaitisguitarcompany.com/

Very, very cool! The upgrades were very well thought out and done well. It’s like you’re playing a work of art. Well...you are actually. I believe I have the same tuners on my newly acquired Japanese Gretsch. They are great tuners. Congrats on a great guitar! And, great picture.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by PTony

Very, very cool! The upgrades were very well thought out and done well. It’s like you’re playing a work of art. Well...you are actually. I believe I have the same tuners on my newly acquired Japanese Gretsch. They are great tuners. Congrats on a great guitar! And, great picture.

These are the tuners...

http://g-gotoh.com/international/pro...10z-a60lx.html

If you got these on your Gretsch, you should thank the guy that upgraded it! They are my favorite tuners, and the most accurate I've ever used! The stock tuners on my guitar was the Gotoh 16:1 SG381 and they were also pretty good. But I changed them out on my other Zemaitis guitars, and I really like 21:1 ratio better. The stock tuners on my Gretsch DuoJet are open back Grover Sta-tites which I don't like as much as the Gotohs.

Like your affection for Gretsch, which I love too, I have a thing for Zemaitis guitars, here are my other Zs...



I just modified the black one with some cool deArmond style pickups...

[David Eastwood]

Did you buy it with a view to modding it, or did you mod it because you didn't like what you bought?

Serious question. I'm fascinated by the whole 'mod' thing, and have done more than my fair share over the years.

[PTony]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

These are the tuners...

http://g-gotoh.com/international/pro...10z-a60lx.html

If you got these on your Gretsch, you should thank the guy that upgraded it! They are my favorite tuners, and the most accurate I've ever used! The stock tuners on my guitar was the Gotoh 16:1 SG381 and they were also pretty good. But I changed them out on my other Zemaitis guitars, and I really like 21:1 ratio better. The stock tuners on my Gretsch DuoJet are open back Grover Sta-tites which I don't like as much as the Gotohs.

Like your affection for Gretsch, which I love too, I have a thing for Zemaitis guitars, here are my other Zs...



I just modified the black one with some cool deArmond style pickups...

Wow! Very cool. How’d you discover these? That Tele shaped Z is insane! I’m sure there’s no lack of power there lol.

My apologies. My tuners are Gotoh locking but not what yours has. I think the early version tuners that came on my Gretsch model was Sperzel Deluxe locking tuners. The latter came with Gotoh locking.

I have open backs on my Korean 5622T-CB. Not sure what brand.
My 2 5620’s have low rent Grover’s lol.

A friend has Gotoh 510’s on his acoustic and they’re VERY smooth. Excellent quality.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

Did you buy it with a view to modding it, or did you mod it because you didn't like what you bought?

Serious question. I'm fascinated by the whole 'mod' thing, and have done more than my fair share over the years.

I knew what I was buying, I'm just not a fan of the high output humbuckers and the pots and caps Zemaitis use. For people that play heavier music, they would probably be great, but I like vintage style guitar tones. I bought this one on a Christmas sale, so I got a great price on it $1299, so even with the mods it was reasonable prices,

Guitar $1299
Pickups $280
Misc elect (3-way, pots and caps) $100
Switch Tip $15
Tuners $120

Total $1814

That was cheaper than one of their custom shop models which I think my guitar would be superior to because of the components I used.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by PTony

Wow! Very cool. How’d you discover these? That Tele shaped Z is insane! I’m sure there’s no lack of power there lol.

My apologies. My tuners are Gotoh locking but not what yours has. I think the early version tuners that came on my Gretsch model was Sperzel Deluxe locking tuners. The latter came with Gotoh locking.

I have open backs on my Korean 5622T-CB. Not sure what brand.
My 2 5620’s have low rent Grover’s lol.

A friend has Gotoh 510’s on his acoustic and they’re VERY smooth. Excellent quality.

I discovered these guitars through a few of my favorite artists, Ronnie Wood and Ronnie Lane of The Faces, Keith Richards, Martin Quittendon of the early Rod Stewart solo material, and James Honeymoon Scott of the the original Pretenders band. Here's a cool video that shows both Ronnie Wood and Ronnie Lane playing their Zemaitis guitar and bass on one of my favorite rock and roll songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmmnihsoRzc

The tuners on my Zs are based on the 510, but they upped the the gear ratio from 18:1 to 21:1. I just think Gotoh is very good tuner company, as I said, even the stock SG381s felt very smooth and worked fine.

[Dru Edwards]

Great job. Your modding parts probably cost more than many a guitar . It looks fantastic!

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Great job. Your modding parts probably cost more than many a guitar . It looks fantastic!

You're probably right, but fortunately this time I had some extra VIP pots, PIO caps, and the puretone output jack and the three way switch were given to me for working on a friend's guitar. Also the pickups came out of my other Zemaitis that I put DeArmond style MR2000SB pickups in.

So now I have some pretty good differences between the Z's

The black one with it's pickups has kind of cool Gretsch vibe...


The A22 with it's 22 fret setup has a thicker neck tone pickup which is more Les Paul style...


The A24 has very clear neck pickup tone...


The Disctop has some killer in-between position tones, and the Tom Short pickups were cutom wound for a Faces style tone which it gets in spades...