Electric Guitar Review

If you’re an old Zemaitis fiend like myself you’ll definitely want to check out Vintage Guitar Magazine’s review of the S22 Metal Top.

For nearly two years straight I’ve been trying to get my hands on one of the new Zemaitis models, but as with many boutique instruments, they are incredibly difficult to track down outside of the larger metropolitan areas.

Priced at $9,000, the S22 is a top-of-the-line heir to the classic “metal top” design that helped put Zemaitis on the map, and while luthier Antanus Zemaitis himself passed away in 2002, Tokyo-based Zemaitis International has apparently done an exemplary job of living up to their namesake in terms of quality and design.

Of course, the feature that stands out most on the S22 is its gorgeous hand-engraved top and hand-machined Duralumin hardware (yep, that’s aircraft aluminum,) including bridge, tailpiece, control cavity covers, jackplate, pickup rings, truss rod cover, and headstock logo.

That’s a helluva’ lot of aluminum, and according to Vintage Guitar the rather weighty mixture of mahogany (neck and body) and Duralumin means the S22 absolutely sings with sustain.

The guitar also sports an ebony fingerboard with 12“ radius, Schaller machine heads, and a pair of DiMarzio DP103 humbuckers––oh yeah, and it ships with a deluxe hard shell case with aluminum handle.