My Favorite Guitar: Beaver County guitar maker Jim Jaros talks shop (and headless guitars)

(My Favorite Guitar is a monthly feature in The Times asking prominent local guitarists to talk about their favorite guitars.)

Jim Jaros' workshop looks like a high school woodshop class if there existed one that focused on making guitars instead of birdhouses and cutting boards.

Step inside the New Sewickley Township structure and you'll see bandsaws, wood routers, a paint booth and long planks of hardwoods, along with various shapes and stages of unfinished guitars that will end up played everywhere from local bars to some of the most prestigious concert venues in the country.

"This is actually Charles' 335," Jaros said on a recent tour, pointing to one of rising alt-country star Charles Wesley Godwin's guitars that's in the shop to get a fresh look.

"And there's one used by Eric Dull," Jaros said, referring to a New Brighton member of Godwin's Allegheny High band, which has performed at Red Rocks Amphitheater, Nashville's Ryman Auditorium and other esteemed concert sites. Dull's Epiphone guitar had its headstock snap off when it fell over on stage at a Los Angeles gig, a repair job within Jaros' capabilities.

"Though, now we're talking about making a special one-off 12-string (guitar) for him," Jaros said.

Jaros created the go-to guitar used by Allegheny High lead six-stringer Al Torrence. His two current touring guitars is a curly Maple top and Black Limba body and neck with a rosewood fingerboard.

More: My Favorite Guitar: Al Torrence shares the story of his favorite instrument

Jaros made an electric guitar for original Woodstock '69 alum, Leslie West, of Mountain, who played it at a 40th anniversary Woodstock show in upstate New York in 2009.

"I can take a guitar from raw blocks of wood all the way to recording with it," said Jaros, who along with operating Jaros Custom Guitars, also writes and records original music in the soundproofed studio that's under the same roof as his workshop, nicknamed The Emerald Palace, because of its green color.

Longtime local music scenesters might remember Jaros playing in rock bands like Whiskey Grin and Night Breed.

"I've been building guitars since 1994, and always doing repair work because playing in bands, people would always come to me," Jaros said. "There's not a lot of repair guys around. There's a few, but lots of times I do the follow-ups. The triage to what somebody else already did."

He learned the woodworking craft from his father, Harry Jaros, a highly skilled cabinet maker who worked as a machine repairman for Westinghouse.

Together they started Jaros Custom Guitars, starting out with six prototypes.

"We went to a guitar show in Philadelphia and picked up some dealers there, then Vintage Guitar did an article on us," Jaros said.

Word-of-mouth publicity helped spread the word.

Harry Jaros died last year at the age of 97 and is commemorated in the workshop with photos of him in his World War II and Korean War military uniforms.

The elder Jaros built the workshop's table that flips; with one side having a built-in miter saw, the other a neck jig, each used for different cuts on a guitar.

One of Jaros' special tricks is using magnets instead of wood screws to attach the cutout piece of wood on his guitars, giving guitarists easier access to check on loose wiring.

"That way, you don't need to get a tool before you work on it," Jaros said.

From a slab of Amish wood and loads of lacquer, he makes guitar bodies that are durable and eye-catching.

Local guitar slingers approach him with sketched drawings of the dream guitar they hope he can custom build for them.

"Sometimes I'll have to say 'That won't work. Looks great on paper, but that won't work.' But we'll work together on it and come up with something."

Recently retired from managing an electrical company distribution center where he worked for 34 years, Jaros checked off one bucket list item this summer by taking a motorcycle trip to Pike's Peak in Colorado. Now he's eager to devote more time to making and playing guitars.

He's made a bunch of local musicians sound good, and he brings a unique perspective, so it's high time to shine the spotlight on Jaros for our monthly My Favorite Guitar series.

It's the first time, in this, our 19th installment, where a guitarist chose a guitar he himself made, in this case, a deep purple-hued, headless beauty.

Take it away, Jim:

My favorite guitar is ...

"The Jaros Headless H Model One. This guitar is made from curly maple wood. I stained it black and then sanded it back so only the black stays in the grain to enhance it. Then I wiped in translucent blue to chartreuse to a purple. The laminate is Purple Heart. And the fingerboard is Purple Heart as well with glow-in-the-dark side dots. Every guitar I build now I do glow-in-the-dark side dots because it really helps on a dark stage."

It's my favorite because:

"In the studio where we're confined, I prefer a headless guitar because if someone is sitting next to me, I'm not batting them in the head with it. It stays in tune better. It's more stable and more compact. It's still full-scale length but it's just a smaller design guitar and works really well. I've built quite a few now."

Some of my favorite places where my guitars have been played ...

"Al Torrence has played them at quite a few famous places, like Red Rocks Amphitheater. There's some great pictures from that. Back in the day, Leslie West played one of my model guitars for a while."

To see my guitars played next...

To see my guitars live, follow Charles Wesley Godwin. They have to be playing close to 200 shows a year, and they're playing sold-out places because they've done support for Zach Bryan and Cody Jinks.

Jaros also is personally using his headless purple guitar to make original music, including a song inspired by this summer's motorcycle trip to Colorado. Stay tuned for that music's release.

Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times, and easy to reach at stady@timesonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: My Favorite Guitar: New Sewickley Township guitar maker Jim Jaros talks shop