Former physics teacher strikes chord with new guitar-making business in Middlesbrough

A new guitar making and repairs business has been launched in the North East by a former physics teacher.

Agrajag Guitars, based in Middlesbrough, has been launched by James McCue, who is a self-taught guitar repairman.

The company, which is named after a character in The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is based in a workshop just beside the Riverside Stadium.

James had been repairing and creating guitars freelance for several years, leading to the creation of the new company.

He commented: “I’ve always fiddled with guitar set-ups, wiring and effects to try to achieve the sounds that were in my head.

“I became adept at fixing and setting guitars up for optimum playability and did countless jobs for people by word of mouth.

“I spent two decades relentlessly selling and buying guitars, looking for that perfect instrument, but nothing ever seemed quite right – so I set myself the goal of building an electric guitar from scratch.

“After hundreds of hours of YouTube tutorials, I got hold of a drill, jigsaw and some lovely ash, mahogany, ebony and the necessary pieces of hardware to build a guitar. To my astonishment, my first guitar played in tune and made a pretty decent sound!

“By the time I had made four guitars I needed money for more woods and hardware, so I decided to try to sell some of my builds.

“Builds two, three and four all sold and following regular social media exposure, one of my neighbours had enough confidence in me to order a full custom build for his son’s 21st birthday. It was built to his exact specifications and he is extremely pleased with it.

“The ethos of Agrajag Guitars is to get guitars playing perfectly for customers, and to offer anything up to full custom guitar builds to people.”