In 1970 Zemaitis started experimenting with placing a metal shield on the top of the guitar body to eliminate microphonic noise through the guitars' pickups. His first metal-top guitar prototype was purchased by Tony McPhee; the second was built for Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones, (who was in The Faces at the time). Wood played the instrument on The Faces' Top of the Pops appearance in 1971, and the shiny appearance of the guitar raised much interest from other guitar players. Zemaitis asked gun engraver Danny O'Brien to create artistic images on the top and other metal parts of the guitar, and he started building custom-order guitars for rich and famous musicians. His most famous guitars are Ronnie Wood's 24-fret metal-top guitars: Zemaitis built four for Wood, which he used from 1971 until 1995. He also built Ronnie Wood's "Desert Island" (or "Slide on This") metal disc top guitar, Keith Richards' 5-string "Skull&Bones" guitar, Eric Clapton's "Ivan the Terrible" 12-string acoustic guitar, various acoustic guitars and resonator guitars for George Harrison, and bass guitars and a resonator guitar for Ronnie Lane. In 1978, he made a unique acoustic bass for David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.
