Zemaitis Guitars

Zemaitis guitars are perhaps the worlds most original, stunning and beautiful electric guitars.


British luthier Tony Zemaitis, (Antanus Casimere Zemaitis) was originally from Lithuania. As a boy, Zematiis was obsessed with creating things, such as handmade bicycles, cabinets, and model airplanes. He also learned to play guitar.

By the 1950’s, the 20 year old Zemaitis was building his own guitars. By the early 1960’s he was building guitars for some of the well-known British players. These musicians influenced The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

He sold these acoustic instruments to friends and only was able to make a few guitars each year.


Zemaitis experimented with his instruments to determine acceptable string scale and differing soundhole shapes.




1961 Zematis

 By 1965, he devoted his career to luthery and began building guitars.


We all know that single coil guitar pickups have a propensity to capture 60-cycle hum from other electric devices, including amplifiers.



In an effort to solve this problem, Tony Zemaitis placed a metal cap on the tops of some of his electric guitars. This was successful solution for shielding out the undesired noise. As a plus, it looked great.


Zemaitis did not stop there. He recalled the beautiful engraving designs on high-end firearms such as Western pistols, rifles, and shotguns.

Tony then hired engraver Danny O’Brien to engrave decorations on the metal-topped Zemaitis instruments. These guitars went from musical instruments to works of art.

Zemaitis’ basic design looked somewhat like a Gibson Les Paul Special, with its Florentine cut-away. However, his guitars were much narrower than the Gibson.

Early models had single-coil pickups. Humbucking pickups are what are typically seen on a Zemaitis. His other design has two cutaways.


The lower one is similar to the Les Paul Special design and the upper is a rounded extension, and the bottom cutaway was Florentine.

The metal-topped guitars came in two versions. On the fancy version, the top covered most of the top of the body.


Zemaitis also produced a disc-front version in which a round metal disc covered the area housing the pickups and bridge.

Zemaitis next came up with the beautifully adorned Pearl Top guitar. The top of this guitar featured a mosaic of pearloid tiles and in some cases abalone surrounding the pearl, causing a sparling illusion of colour change under stage lights.

Despite the fancy top, the rosewood fretboard on most Zemaitis guitars is rather plain, bearing only dot markers. Some models have bound necks and others have plain necks.
By the 1980’s Zemaitis’ fame was widespread. His guitars were very expensive. They were hand built and handcrafted.


Many popular artists such as Ron Wood, Eric Clapton, and George Harrison owned and played Zemaitis guitars. The bodies were made of three pieces of high quality wood, as were the glued-in necks. The headstocks were topped off with an engraved metal emblem. All through his career, Zematis continued making acoustic guitars.

I recall seeing a very young Donovan playing a Zematis. All the Zemaitis acoustics were handmade and sold at a premium.

In the year 2000, Tony Zematis retired and his son, Tony Jr. took over the business. Mr. Zematis passed away in August of 2002.


That same year, the company entered into a relationship with Greco guitars of Japan.

Greco is the trade name used by the Japanese musical instrument manufacturer Kanda Shokai of Tokyo. This Japanese firm was founded in 1948 and is still building guitars, more often these were replicas of U.S. instruments such as Gibson and Fender.


In 1982, Fender tapped Kanda Shokai as the builder of Fender Guitars in Japan. (This was a transition period for Fender when they did not have an America manufacturing facility.) This is currently where Zematis guitars are produced.

Zematis offers hand-built and hand-engraved guitars, which still command premium prices. Danny O’Brien manages the engraving staff. Zematis currently offers lower cost models, selling under the Greco-Zematis name, which has come to be known as their GZ line.

Hoyer Guitars

Randy Bachman collects Hoyer guitars.  That ought to make your ears perk up. Besides being a first rate rock guitarist and singer, Bachman is one of the foremost guitar collectors in the world. Here is a man that knows guitars.  He recently sold a part of the collection that he had amassed over a 30-year period. Fred Gretsch of Gretsch Guitars purchased his entire cache of 360 vintage Gretsch instruments.These will be housed in the Gretsch museum.  

When Gretsch restarted the business, he owned no original models. The originals were destroyed in a fire at the Arkansas based factory.  At the time, Gretsch was able to borrow some of Bachman’s collection as a basis for the measurements of the current Gretsch guitars.

As I alluded to, Bachman is  a collector of Hoyer guitars. When it comes to guitars, Hoyer is one of Germany's best-kept secrets. The company started in 1874 and to this day is building excellent guitars. In my opinion, the guitars they produced in the 1950’s through the 1960’s are the best. The wood is beautiful, the woodworking is classic with the German Carve on the bodies perimeter, the f-holes are unique to Hoyer and included a lightening bolt style and a cats eye style reminiscent of Rickenbacker guitars. These guitars are works of art and craftsmanship.

As for some background, in 1874, Franz Hoyer followed in his families business of making stringed instruments. His son, Joseph, opened his own shop at this time to concentrate on building classic and folk guitars. By 1945, Hoyer had to leave Schönbach, which was the town his family had lived. At the end of the ware, the town became part of the Czech Republic. The family settled near the town of Erlangen, in Bavaria. Erlangen was home to many instrument artisans, including Fred Wilfer, who founded Framus guitars. Shortly after the relocation, Hoyer’s son Arnold took over the company.

By 1948, Hoyer guitars were making a name as preeminent Jazzgitarran in Germany.  By the 1950’s most Hoyer guitars were semi-acoustic and equipped with pickups. By the end of the 1950’s, the company had started  producing solid body guitars.

Arnold Hoyer passed away in 1967 and his son Walter took over the business. Walter concentrated mainly on the line of electric guitars and classical instruments. Quality, design and beautiful wood were hallmarks of Hoyer. During the 1960’s, Hoyer even invented a guitar with a foldaway neck.

In 1977, Walter Hoyer left the business. His staff of luthiers ran it through 1987 when the company closed its door. Three years later it was purchase by a German acquisition group. They concentrated building a contemporary line of solid body instruments. Much of the production was outsourced to Asia, though some high-end instruments were still built domestically. 

In 2005, AMC Compernass, a company owned by Michael Compernass, acquired the Hoyer brand name. By 2009, a UK company, Ritter Europe LTD entered into an agreement with AMC for the purchase of Hoyer. Compernass has stayed on to provide expertise and by the sole distributor in the German market.  The company is still building guitars in Germany and importing some from the Far East.


However the golden years of Hoyer stretched from 1945 to the end of the 1960's, when they produced gorgeous German-crafted, hand-built guitars. 

The top-of-the-line guitar for Hoyer is the Special SL. This guitar combines many of the features of the Bianka and the Special. The body is similar to the Hoyer Special, but has black or white pearloid inlay surrounding the top, much like the Bianka. The top and bottom sides are bound with large herringbone inlay. The top is carved spruce and the back and sides are flamed maple. The Special SL has cats eye tone holes that are bound with herringbone inlay. The controls come mounted on a metal plate. On some models the controls mounted in the traditional manner. The usual Hoyer rolling bridge is used. The bound neck is flamed maple and came with a traditional ebony fretboard with bow-tie style markers. It also came with a white plasticized fretboard with black bow-tie position markers. The tailpiece was elaborate and interesting.

One of the most beautiful instruments was the Hoyer Bianka. The body is carved from spruce, with unusual engraving. This engraved top is emphasized by the German carve. The top of the body bears a beautiful pearloid border and bound by a white plastic inlay. But for the pickups and controls, the back of the body mirrors the front. The sound-holes are lightening bolt style, the body is extra wide, the neck is flame maple with laminated mahogany strips, and the six individual tuners have engraved buttons. In the break between the neck and headpiece is a large volute.

The fretboard is bound ebony with sort of bow-tie inlays. The metal roller bridge saddle is unique and so is the tailpiece. The roller bridge is unusual since the guitar does not have a vibrato.  The controls sit on a chromed metal pad on the lower bout. The parallelogram pickups are unique to Hoyer guitars. Looking closely, the output jack is an old-style DIN plug. The sunburst Bianka is even more stunning.

The Hoyer Special does not have the engraving of the Bianka, or the German carve or even the lightening bolt inlays. It is a more subtle instrument with bound cats eye sound holes and a beautiful tailpiece. The arched top is carved from spruce and the back and sides are flame maple. Both front and back come bordered with herringbone inlay. The neck is laminated with maple and mahogany. The bound ebony fretboard is similar to the Bianka’s and has a zero fret. The tuners had engraved pegheads.

This guitar also came as a twin pickup electric model with the Hoyer parallelogram pickups. It was available in with a natural or red sunburst finish. Some models have the metal plate to house the controls. Later models have more traditional controls that were mounted into the wood.  This guitar came in acoustic or electric models. Some of the electric models featured the Hoyer parallelogram pickups and others featured pickups that appear to be made by DeArmond.

A most unusual guitar manufactured by Hoyer sometimes did not bear the Hoyer logo. Instead, the headstock read Herr Im Frack or Gentleman Dressed for the Evening. This all black hollow archtop bore a small round soundhole as well as twin cats eye soundholes. The black non-cutaway body was bound, front and back, in white pearloid inlay.

The neck was bound in white and came with a rosewood fretboard inlaid with white blocks, except for the 12^th fret, which had a red marker, mimicking a bowtie. The guitar had the zero fret, which is found on most Hoyers. The usual Hoyer roller bridge saddle was paired with a beautiful gold-plated tailpiece. The headstock was bound in white and bore the name Herr Im Frack in gold pearloid lettering. 

Hoyer also produced a very unusual model, somewhat similar to the Herr Im Frack. They called this the Volttal. The instrument was not as fancy. It bore the Hoyer logo. The bizarre feature was the 18 individual sound holes that surrounded the body's perimeter.

The Hoyer Soloist was a beautiful guitar. Different models had different features. It came in a very plain natural version with a spruce top and maple back, sides and neck.  The body was bound with white inlay, the bound neck featured an ebony fretboard with small position markers. The headstock came with 3 white pearloid inlays. The machine heads were plain with pearloid buttons. A fancier version of the Soloist was also available with a multi-striped top that featured alternating strips of spruce and mahogany. It was bound with triangulated wood pieces.

Without a doubt the most bizarre Hoyer guitar was the Fantastik model.  This was sort of an experimental instrument that Hoyer created and sold. Due to its unusual construction, it became  known as the organ guitar.

The body is constructed of six wooden pipes or tubes lined up in three differing lengths. Each pipe is an individual resonator and each has a sound hole. The beautifully carved body is lined with a dark binding.  The back of the guitar is flat. 

The guitars accoutrements include a trapeze tailpiece, the Hoyer roller bridge; white binding on the back of the body and Hoyer fancy butterfly shaped tuning buttons. The guitars ebony fretboard came bound in white and came with unusual white inlays, but for the 12^th fret, which had a red inlay. 

The unusual pointed headstock came bound with black and white strips and adorned in fancy script announcing this was an Arnold Hoyer guitar. A DeArmond floating pickup attached to the scratchplate topped the body and contained the output jack, volume, and tone control.

As futuristic, well constructed, and thought out as this instrument was, according to those that played it, the instrument did  not have much of an acoustic sound. However, it was surely and eye catcher.

Though many US music stores offer new Hoyer guitars, one would be hard pressed to find a used Hoyer in the USA. They occasionally show up on eBay.eBay.

Weird Guitars

Did you ever look at a product and scratch your head and say, “What were they thinking?”

I have stumbled across a few guitars over the years that made me wonder this very thing.  The LaBaye 2x4 and the Musicvox guitars come to mind.


We are living in an age in which there are more amateur and professional luthiers than ever before. Most are creating wonderful instruments. But there are some that make you wonder if someone forgot to lock the cage door. That's what this is about.

Though this looks something like a teenage girl mannequin, it is actually a guitar.  It was made by a fellow named Lou Reimuller. I'm sort of concerned about Lou.

This one was not made by Cheech or Chong, but by Basone Guitars, located in Vancover, BC. Judging their web page, they make some fine quality guitars. But this one is...uh...different.

It appears an individual that uses guitars as art projects made this Egyptian objet d’art. Or perhaps it was a rare find from one of the pyramids.

I have seen hundreds of 12 string guitars, and played many 12 string guitars, but I have never played a 12 neck guitar. I believe this guy attempting to outdo Rick Nielsen.

I do not know who made this, but they must think they are a cut above the rest.

Here is a hodge-podge of strange-but-true guitars. Most are a mystery as to the creator. If I knew who they were, the question I would ask is why?

This must be Taylor’s new Evenrude tribute model.

I never was keen on snakes, not even if they have six strings and a humbucker.

Let’s give a polite hand to this builder. Hooooraaaayyyy!!!

Is it a guitar?  Is it a horn?  I’m so confused.

What the @#$%???

  “Oh the shark has, lots of teeth dear,

    and he keeps them pearly-white...”

This is a Jay Turser JT-Shark Guitar. I am not sure why someone would want one, however get one and be the life of your next party!

I am not sure whose head that is, but I do know that John Hall, the president of Rickenbacker, ain’t going to like this guitar.

Hamer Guitars

Hamer & Dantzig

The Hamer Guitar story is a most interesting tale that began as early as 1970 when graphic designer Jol Dantzig became a partner in a Chicago guitar shop called Northern Prairie Music. 


Northern Prairie was one of the first vintage guitar shops in the US. Northern Prairie did warranty work for Gibson, so they had a lot of knowledge about how the guitar was made and how to repair it and put it together. They also worked repairing guitars for other companies. Both of the partners wanted guitars that were constructer better than the ones they repaired.

Paul Hamer

Though their main business concern was to sell and trade guitars,  it was in 1973, that Dantzig built the first Hamer guitar.  This was a Flying Vee bass. This process of creating instruments, at first, became an important part of their business. 






Jol Dantzig

After completing their 10^th guitar, they knew building guitars was their business.  

When customers came in looking for a Les Paul or an elusive Explorer, (At that time, Gibson had not reissued this guitar and there were only about 100 originals), Hamer or Dantzig would show them one of their models.  Being located in a major city was helpful in spreading the word about Hamer guitars, since they had connection with some major players.

Interestingly enough, when Gibson introduced the Explorer in 1959, they could not give it away. When Hamer found success with The Special, you had better believe Gibson took note and reintroduced The Explorer.

In 1974, Hamer and Dantzig took out advertisements in popular guitar magazines. These were the days before anyone else was producing boutique guitars. Hamer was the first to take on this task.

In 1977 Cheap Trick guitarist, Rick Nielsen, became acquainted with Hamer and endorsed their instruments. Dantzig had discovered a way to imprint graphics on a guitar and convinced the 3M Corporation to invent a new kind of tape that would make production of checkerboard guitars easier. 


Whatever strange guitar request Nielsen made, Dantzig and Hamer were able to produce.

Tom Petersson, also of Cheap Trick, asked Hamer to build a 12 string bass. Up until then, the only company to build a bass with double courses was Hagstrom with its eight-string model. The 12 string Hamer bass was a first and not only did it have 12 strings, it was also quadraphonic. The bass had a miniaturized mixer built into the controls so each course of strings could be placed anywhere in a quad mix.

One of the craziest things about Hamer Guitars is Paul Hamer and Jol Dantzig were not even 30 years old at this time.

Well known band personnel such as Wishbone Ash's Martin.Turner, Bad Company's Boz Burrell and Mick Ralphs, and Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson and Martin Barre, Paul Stanley of KISS, Warren Zevon, Lita Ford, Tommy Bolin, Dave Hlubek of Molly Hatchet, Pete Townsend and John Entwhiste were all Hamer users. However, it was Cheap Trick that put Hamer on the map. Hamer had come up with all these fancy and bizarre guitars for Nielsen. Nielsen also purchased guitars from Hamer that were customized to his specification.

The first production Hamer guitar, called The Standard, was an Explorer shaped guitar. The body was British mahogany and the fretboard was ebony or rosewood. There were Standards made through 1978 and these were all handmade. The hockey-stick headstock was somewhat different from the original Gibson Explorer. From 1975 to 1985, Hamer built approximately 750 Standards. The Standard became the company’s flagship guitar and at the time sold for around $1200. It originally sold for around $800 in 1975.

Pickups on Hamers made in 1977 and before were genuine Gibson PAF's that they purchase from old parts at the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo. After 1977, Hamer used DiMarzio or Seymour Duncan pickups. Later Hamer manufactured their own pickups, called Hamer Slammers. 


Interestingly, Hamer had the pickups mounted with no pickup covers and was the first company to take this approach. They had the pickups specifically designed with cream and black bobbins. 

Grover tuners were used on the neck and all instruments had a tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece. The guitars were 24.75” scale, similar to Gibson’s standard. The guitars came with individual volume controls and one tone control. 


Dantzig worked on that tone control. Many of us find our guitars tone control provides only subtle differences based on turning the capacitor on or off. 

Dantzig made sure the tone control gave a full contour of sounds. Hamers came with a 3-way toggle switch. The bridge was what Hamer called The Sustain Block. This was somewhat similar unit to that found on a hard tail Stratocaster, with the strings going through the body; however the aluminum bridge was mounted on a raised shim of either rosewood or ebony.

The Sunburst Archtops shape had its basis on the Les Paul Jr. Double cutaway. However, it was certainly an improvement. The arched top was finished in a variety of colours. The Honduras mahogany body was beautifully polished. The controls were similar, with twin volume knobs and a master tone knob and the toggle switch placed on the bottom bout, behind the bridge, where it was out of the way. 

The 22 fret fingerboards were rosewood with trapezoidal or dot inlays. The headstock bore Grover kidney bean tuners on early models. Later productions used Schaller tuners. The Sunburst was the first guitar to have Hamer’s familiar trapezoidal headstock with the indention. These instruments came with DiMarzios or Seymour Duncans, which were wired out of phase. Prototypes were on display at the 1977 NAMM Show. It proved to be one of Hamer’s most popular guitars with some 1500 guitar built by 1980. By the time the company moved to Arlington Heights they were producing 2000 Sunbursts per year. Some later models, produced by Kaman, used a flat top instead of the arch.

The Hamer Special was a Sunburst without any of the frills. The two-piece mahogany body had a thin maple top. Body and neck were unbound and position markers were dots on the 22-fret fingerboard. Hardware included Schaller tuners and the Sustain Block Bridge. The guitar came in a variety of colours. A Floyd Rose Tremolo System was an option. By the early to mid 1990’s, the guitar was available with a flamed maple top. It is interesting to note that Hamer was the first guitar manufacturer to utilize the Floyd Rose Tremolo system on their instruments. Additionally, they were the first to produce guitars with locking tuners.  Because the Floyd Rose system on many of their instruments was black-plated, Hamer also was the first to utilize black hardware.

Hamer used the Special body on long neck four string basses and its eight string single pickup bass.

By 1978, Hamer set its sights on world markets. By 1980 production warranted moving to larger quarters in Arlington Heights, Illinois due to rapid sales expansion.

It was in 1981 when Hamer introduced a custom order Vee style guitar they called The Vector. 

The Vector had similar accoutrements as the aforementioned guitars on a Honduras mahogany top that could be ordered with or without a maple top, in a variety of colours. Tuners were made by Schaller. It also came with the Hamer Sustain Block Bridge.

During the 1980’s and the age of Metal and Hair Bands, Hamer introduced some guitars aimed at this market. The Scepter was based on another Hamer Explorer guitar called the Blitz. The Blitz was more of an affordable basic model. The body was beveled and it came with a Floyd Rose Tremolo system. The Scepter V was an updated version of the Vector. It too came with a beveled body and boomerang inlays.

The Hamer Scarab had its basis in the Explorer style body, but the guitars bottom had a unique curved cleft cut.

During the Metal years, Hamer came up with some interesting concepts, which included adding 27 frets to the neck, adding 36 frets to the neck, introducing a fretless guitar, introducing a 3 coil humbucking pickup, adding hologram images to the body, and they were the first to introduce a seven string guitar.

Early on, Dantzig had recognized the issue of stress on the neck. Because of this Hamer changed building techniques to use three-piece maple that was made so the center strip had the wood grain reversed from the outer laminates. This is a method utilized by a number of guitar manufacturers and prevents warping. The necks are dovetailed into a hand- chiseled cavity for a tight fit.  The control cavity is flawless and painted with nickel-based paint, then covered with an anodized aluminum cover. This prevents RF interference and hum. The bodies and necks receive a special method of applying lacquer to assure a beautiful finish.

By 1987, Paul Hamer left the company that carried his name. He served as sales manager and was ready to move on to another career. In 1988, Kaman Music, the parent company of Ovation guitars purchased Hamer and moved manufacture ring to Hartford Connecticut. 


Dantzig left Hamer five years later, but returned as a technical consultant in 1997.

At the end of 2007, Kaman Inc sold its music division to Fender Musical Instrument Company. Dantzig stayed on until 2010 and left to start his own high-end, boutique guitar company, known as Dantzig Guitar Design.

Hamers current ownership has recognized “the times, they are a’changin’”, and has abandoned to Metal market to take a more traditional approach to guitar design. Hamer still offers its original models, including the 12 string bass and the Vector bass. 

They have introduced the Duotone, which has a belly bridge with a piezo pickup in addition to the humbuckers and the Hamer Artist, which has sort of a PRS shape.  Hamer manufactures its guitars in the USA, but also produces the Hamer XT series of Asian made guitars that have a considerably less expensive price tag.

One very interesting fact about Hamer concerns Dean Zelinsky, the young creator of Dean Guitars. Dean worked as a roadie for Dantzig and Hamers band.  Dean took advantage of his lessons from watching and being with these fellows. It was after that experience when he launched his own business.