verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . august 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message zemaitis guitars type private industry guitar manufacturing founded london england 1965 ; 51 years ago 1965 founder tony zemaitis headquarters tokyo japan area served worldwide key people tony zemaitis jr. products guitars bass guitars website http zemaitisguitar.com zemaitis guitars is a guitar manufacturing company based in tokyo japan . the company s guitars are based on designs by the lithuanian luthier tony zemaitis . his son tony zemaitis jr. leads the company which produces both electric and acoustic guitars . zemaitis guitars opened a location in corona california in 2016 to handle all distribution for the united states canada and mexico . history edit pearl front guitar . tony zemaitis began producing guitars in the 1950s and entered the guitar making profession full time in 1965 . during the 1970s he began experimenting with putting a metal shield on the top of the guitar to eliminate microphonic noise picked up by the guitars pickups . to enhance the visual aspect of the guitars zemaitis enlisted the skills of gun engraver danny o brien . the designs include elaborate pearl inlay either of figures like dragons and skulls or complete mosaic like inlaid tops . since zemaitis sr. s death in 2002 the zemaitis family continued the guitar building business in tokyo offering both high end hand built guitars and a more affordable greco zemaitis line of guitars . the current production is based on original drawings by tony zemaitis sr. guitars made by zemaitis are featured in a museum in tokyo . citation needed zemaitis guitars are noteworthy for having been played by jimi hendrix keith richards of the rolling stones ronnie wood greg lake of emerson lake & palmer and king crimson ronnie lane of faces george harrison marc bolan joe walsh james honeyman scott of the pretenders richie sambora of bon jovi gary grainger of rod stewart simon hinkler of the mission uk dave sharp of the alarm charlie starr of blackberry smoke and james hetfield of metallica . he even made bass guitars pete cruickshank of the groundhogs being one owner . geddy lee of rush appeared with a 1992 model zemaitis bass on the band s r40 tour . external links edit official u.s. website official international website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title zemaitis guitars & oldid 728521183 categories companies established in 1955guitar manufacturing companieshidden categories articles needing additional references from august 2011all articles needing additional referencesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from august 2011 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages lietuvi edit links this page was last modified on 5 july 2016 at 23 07 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view