![]() ![]() We may take easy overdrive, distortion and sustain for granted these days, but back then guitarists had to put considerable effort into achieving heavy-rock tones – especially for soloing. ![]() ![]() Remember, this Zemaitis was commissioned at a time when high-gain amps were not commonplace. If you’re playing through a clean valve amp, when you activate the boost you get instant crunch, sweet sustain and bone-crushing power. The upper switch activates the preamp with a gentle click and the control knob adjusts the output level from ‘is it on?’ to ‘you can’t be serious’. The onboard preamp on this Zemaitis should carry a government heath warning. It adds a raft of usable tones, especially when running through a clean amp. The trick is to back off the bridge volume a tad to balance things out, and you’ll hear a dark jangle with natural compression that is utterly distinctive. Similar to the Varitone in concept, there’s a sizeable drop in output as the tone takes on a scratchy hollowed-out honk that’s a whole lot of fun on its own and even better when bolstered by the bridge pickup. The bottom toggle switch, located between the tone controls, activates the Zemaitis’ bass cut. They are quite dark and I noticed an interesting overtone in the upper-mids – almost like a cocked wah. ![]()
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