Local luthier continues musical quest for tone

SANDPOINT — It has been six years, almost to the day, since local guitar builder Joel Keefe Shoemaker set up his first, proper shop in the historic granary building on Church Street and set his hand to turning out custom-built instruments.

Back then, he was taking a run at creating his first batch of hand-made guitars, with only a few such instruments to his credit.

Since that time, the Sandpoint luthier has changed addresses, dialed in his production process and sold more than 60 guitars under his distinctive “JS” headstock logo. He sat on a work stool and smiled as he strummed a few chords on No. 62, even as the next two builds sat on the bench nearby, waiting to be completed.

In contrast to those early days of building in anonymity, Shoemaker now has a few custom instrument shops that gladly hang his guitars on the wall, as well as a growing reputation that has buyers seeking him out online. That includes some of the best pickers in the immediate area, all of whom have nothing but praise when it comes to describing the sonic attributes of their locally made guitars.

So, does this represent some kind of inflection point for the luthier? Has he now “got it” when it comes to building guitars?

“That’s a moving goalpost,” Shoemaker said. “In general, they can always be better.”

That same quest for turning out ever-better guitars has driven the builder inside his instruments, where he seems to be constantly in the hunt for the subtle things that affect tone. A fairly recent innovation has been the addition of solid, bent liners adapted from classical guitar-building technique, which Shoemaker said has delivered a big improvement in sound.

“What it does is amazing,” the builder explained. “There’s better energy transfer between the top and the back.”

An interior neck block redesign was undertaken to achieve the same result. Taken together, he offered, these changes bring added tone and sustain to his guitars.

Even more wonky is his recent experimentation with what is called “torrefied” wood — tone woods that have literally been baked at low temperatures in an oxygen-free oven to reduce moisture content to as close to zero as possible.

“It simulates the aging process of the wood,” said Shoemaker. “Working with torrefied wood feels different than working with fresh wood.”

His three new guitars all feature the technologically “aged” guitar tops, though the builder admits the jury is still out on whether this innovation has true mojo or is a case of smoke and mirrors.

He appears to be leaning toward the former as he strums a robust chord on No. 62 — his first torrefied top guitar — and listens as it initially punches its way into the room, then lingers, sparkles and blossoms as it ever so slowly fades away in a halo of harmonics.

“Is it a real thing?” he asks. “Well, I like this guitar.”

Then he shrugs and smiles, more than happy to leave the magic of ambiguity intact.

For the first several years of guitar building, Shoemaker created instruments that he said “went out into the ether” to buyers he never met and, likely, would never have a chance to. Strange as that felt, after spending so much time creating the instruments, it was also an important transition in his work.

“I think the first milestone for me was the first guitar I sold to a stranger,” he said. “I didn’t know him; he just wanted one of my guitars.”

Over the past couple of years, talented local friends, too, have been placing orders for one of the instruments bearing the “JS” inlay on the headstock. Among them have been Shanna Mavone Thompson, Patrice Webb and Doug Bond, all of whom now use their Shoemaker guitars on stage and in the recording studio.

In Thompson’s case, the guitar features a cedar top — sawn from a “sinker” log pulled from Lake Pend Oreille — and Ziricote back and sides. Along with a generous amount of volume, the instrument also boasts a warm low register and easy playability, according to the guitarist.

“It’s absolutely gorgeous,” she said. “It sounds wonderful and the intonation is very reliable.

“Joel was exceptionally patient with my decisions regarding all the choices there were,” she added. “He was very accommodating and communicative during every step for almost a year. It helped that he knows my playing style, but the aesthetics were a new thing for me. He put it all together with a nice balance of his recommendations and my choices. Knowing Joel for so many years and seeing his craftsmanship and passion advance in leaps and bounds has been a true pleasure.”

Like Thompson, Webb was looking for a smaller-sized instrument after years of wrangling big guitars. She was surprised by the big sound of the “Orchestra Model” contour she landed on, and well pleased with the quality of the build.

“It has become my ‘go to’ guitar,” said Webb, who tours and records regularly. “For a little ‘OM,’ this guitar has a great, big sound that has a warmth and clarity normally found in bigger guitars.”

For Bond, it was the element of musical nuance, combined with visual appeal, that set the hook.

“The guitar I bought from Joel grabbed me,” he said. “I’ve never played a guitar that I could so noticeably vary and alter the sound and volume — it’s like 50 tones and sounds in one guitar, it seems.”

The performer was equally enthusiastic about the instrument’s looks.

“His guitar is visual, as well as an outstanding sounding work of very high quality art,” he said.

While flattered by the accolades, Shoemaker also cringes a little when words such as “art” and “artist” are attached to his name.

“I have a tough time with all of that, because it feels and sounds pretentious,” the luthier said. “It’s just a guitar — it’s not like it’s a world-changing thing.

“I have no interest in building museum pieces,” he continued. “I want to build guitars that get played and scratched up by musicians.”

Shoemaker now builds about eight instruments a year, with each starting around $3,000. Compared with his early builds, both the number of guitars being sold and the prices they fetch have grown.

“For my first guitars, I was just trying to cover the cost of materials,” he said.

That was a high bar for a new builder, even then, since he was drawn to quality woods from the start. Still experimental by nature, Shoemaker said he is constantly “playing around with different wood combinations” as he chases sound through “a bunch of moving variables.”

“I strive for something that is bright and clear and well-balanced,” he said in describing the sound of his guitars. “But sound is hard to define — it’s like trying to describe a scent, or a taste.”

Be that as it may, discerning players believe Shoemaker has landed on a winning combination of the right woods and enough building experience to produce memorably good-sounding guitars. Call it the Zen of Guitar Building.

“That’s the tricky part of this work,” he said. “You’re trying to achieve a pre-established goal when there’s also a little bit of black magic involved in the outcome.

“As a builder and in life in general, the more I learn, the less I feel like I know,” the luthier added. “But the other side of that is I’m also more confident in making educated guesses.”

Information: Joel Keefe Shoemaker guitars, jksinstruments.com or facebook.com/joelkeefe shoemakerinstruments