Arts
THE OSIDER NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2022
ZOE GUITARS WORDS: SHELBY ROWE PHOTOS: ZACH CORDNER
True craftsmanship is hard to ignore. It awes and amazes at first sight, and Zoe Guitars is no exception. Nestled on Copperwood Way off Mission Avenue, Shawn Weimer’s studio and showroom offers musicians a completely unique experience— both when they play their Zoe and shop for it. While Shawn has been building under the name Zoe Guitars for sometime, between seven to nine years, he’s been putting in the hours as a
luthier for the past thirty years, specializing specifically in acoustic guitars. “All these things are such completely different beasts and it takes completely different toolings and time. So, yeah, just building acoustic guitars is enough,” Shawn said. “I used to have hair.” If losing hair is a testament to hard work, then Shawn takes gold. When he first started Zoe Guitars, he was building around eight guitars per month. After learning his process, you’ll wonder 24
if Shawn lives in a parallel universe where more than twenty-four hours exist in a day. Each Zoe Guitar is of heirloom quality and is a truly one-of-a-kind piece of art, requiring meticulous design and planning. Before he even starts building, Shawn learns his client’s musical ambitions and strumming style, and goes through what seems like an endless list of possibilities. “A lot of people who buy or order, they want something that no one else has. So, we really start from the ground up and over the period of seven days to four, five, or even six weeks, we go through the process of what we’re going to build. And that’s before we even get started,” Shawn said. Each one of Shawn’s guitars is built to order with the highest quality of wood and customized to each client’s preference. So, there’s little wonder as to why people who want a truly unique and never-before-seen piece call up Shawn. Before even thinking about building, Shawn walks his client through a process where they survey different types of woods for their tonal quality, color, and durability. It always goes back to the client and what they want, but such a detailed process can often be jarring. “When they start seeing the possibilities, it overwhelms them a lot of times,” Shawn said. “So we make it a fun process and what we end up doing is finally making something with really unique and one-of-a-kind woods,” Shawn said. “Even if there’s a similar model, it’s not going to be the same. There’s no way. Just the woods itself are going to be so unique.” It’s all in the tonewood, and choosing the right tonewoods cannot be stressed enough. Going into detail on his website, Shawn writes,
