REVIEW
ZEMAITIS GUITARS FORGES NEW TERRITORY Eric Dahl
The name Zemaitis is frequently pickup selector. Besides the playability,
associated with elaborate guitars sound, and light weight of the guitar,
and artfully what is most appealing visually are
engraved metal tops, headstock
basses
featuring
the Zemaitis style cosmetics. These
plates, and bridges. Although Tony include the diamond Z headstock
Zemaitis, the founder and original plate, heavily engraved truss rod
designer for the company, passed cover, exaggerated adjustable bridge,
away in 2002, his vision lives on as and the engraved stop tail piece. The
his family has licensed his designs unique lightning bolt styles f-holes
to a Japanese company. are also a departure from tradition,
but feel right with this instrument. The
Now Zemaitis Guitars is expanding neck and body binding also imbue the
their Virtuoso Series with their first Zemaitis with a classy feel and look,
ever Semi-Hollow body guitars! and the back of the headstock is even
Although they look incredible on beveled. The V22SH also comes with
the website with their body design a heavily padded “Custom Model A.C.
reminiscent of an old Ted McCarty Zemaitis” hard-shell case to protective
design but with a sharper, deeper, your investment.
and farther reaching Florentine
cutaway the instruments are even Our review instrument was one of the
better in person. early prototypes, and I was notified by
the company that they are continuing
For review Collector Guitar received
the Zemaitis V22SH CNB Semi-
Hollow body guitar in a Sunburst
urethane finish. I plugged it into a Vox MV50 AC
setup to test it out. Although both pickups are
Dragon classic humbuckers,
to fine-tune and refine this model
even more now – although I had no
the fingerboard is rosewood. It has a 25 inch
scale length (splitting the difference between
Gibson and Fender), 22 medium frets, Gotoh
tuners, and 2 volumes, 2 tones, and a 3-way
complaints. Upon close inspection,
the only missteps I could find in this guitar
were a few over sanded areas on the back and
top, but they were only visible
I could achieve tele-esque at certain angles. The MAP
sounds in the bridge position, price on the Zemaitis V22SH
a strat tone in the middle, and CNB is $1,895, and the Full-
close to a Les Paul in the neck Hollow models go up to $1,995
selection. Increasing the gain, street. The Japanese quality and
the guitar handled overdrive craftsmanship in this, being the
nicely with no feedback issues first non-solid body Zemaitis
thanks to the center block. instrument ever produced, are
Rolling back the tone provided impressive. I could see making
some round jazz sounds, and I this an everyday player, and it will
could see the V22SH working be interesting to see what other
nicely in a Rockabilly setting improvements they make on
too. these Semi-Hollow body guitars.
The Zemaitis’ top, back, and If Zemaitis were still alive today I
sides are created from Alder, think he would be proud of this
the set-neck is maple, and new direction for his company!
14
Jul Aug 2017
CollectibleGuitar.com