Zemaitis FS - HOLY CATS!!

[gweimer]

No affiliation, but if this is the price he's asking - SOMEBODY JUMP ON THIS.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f126/fs-feeler-zemaitis-bass-celebrity-owned-871897/

[Dave W]

It's one of the reissues. I never understood the appeal of the originals.

[gweimer]

Interesting.  I was not aware that the Zemaitis Custom Shop was doing reissues.  I knew that someone was making copies, but not these.  I played a "cheap" Zemaitis once.  It was a single pickup, and only $13K.  It was a nice, simple bass.  I once had the opportunity to buy one, at half of what it had been bought for, and decided that it really wasn't worth the money.  While I always loved the sound that Ronnie Lane and Pete Cruickshank got from theirs, I just couldn't justify the cost.

Now that I know this is a RI, it's probably priced too high.  Oops.

[Basvarken]

That someone would be Greco. They are building (affordable) licensed Zemaitis instruments.

http://www.zemaitis-guitars.com/our_guitars/gz/index.php

[Droombolus]

While I always loved the sound that Ronnie Lane and Pete Cruickshank got from theirs, I just couldn't justify the cost.

Ronnie Lane's had 2 single-coil Precision PUPs, love the sound of those PUPpies, but cost-wise I couldn't agree more. They make beautiful pics tho' ..... but so do a lot of women I can't afford .... 

[gweimer]

Ahhhh....I hadn't seen any of the metal front models until now.  As I recall, the Greco reissues were going for about $2500?

[Iome]

Could someone explain me why these instruments costs so much? Do they cut the wood with their teeth?

[gweimer]

Ronnie Lane's had 2 single-coil Precision PUPs, love the sound of those PUPpies, but cost-wise I couldn't agree more. They make beautiful pics tho' ..... but so do a lot of women I can't afford .... 

Ronnie had two different Zemaitis basses.  One is owned by Bob Daisley these days.

[Dave W]

Could someone explain me why these instruments costs so much? Do they cut the wood with their teeth?

The originals had a lot of hand work by Tony Zemaitis. Once he had established a reputation, he could charge more than average. I don't know why the reissues cost so much, although I think they're a lot less expensive than the originals.

Mr. Zemaitis retired. As I understand it, he died a couple of years later and never appointed a successor or sold the company. His family later sold the rights to the name to the current company. So IMHO the current company isn't really a successor to the original in the same way that, say, today's Gibson is the successor of Orville Gibson.

[Big_Stu]

John Birch in the UK had a close copies of Zematis styled guitars for sale until recently. IIRC they had excellent magazine reviews too.