VIDEO: Upping the ante for YouTube guitar playing presentation and location, Steve Sjuggerud adapts 'Message In A Bottle' for solo performance. Sketch 7-string headless guitar prototype.
Speakers capable of reproducing deep frequency response will allow you to realize what Sjuggs has accomplished with his beautiful adaptation of 'Message in a Bottle' by The Police.
There is a lot of low end content as he takes full advantage of 7-string range to incorporate essential elements from Sting's bass line, especially during the verses.
Sounding almost like a second instrument, Sjugg's economical fingerpicking, harmonics, and tap-slide technique deftly builds Andy Summers' guitar progression beneath what our ears interpret as the vocal melody.
One guitar...covering the uncoverable Andy Summers as well as both Stings! Steve, maybe reach out to Stewart Copeland to see if he will play drums on your pending debut album...
And now a story.
When Steve played Sketch, he wanted to purchase it.
I wouldn't let him.
This was the first time we met in person. After some months of emails, Sjuggs had flown in to visit my shop and was staying in a nearby hotel. We were talking about a potential build. I suggested he borrow Sketch overnight because what better place to explore a new guitar...lonely and on the road.
He arrived the next morning, half in love, half in pain: "This guitar is awesome, but my thumb hurts. I think I want to buy it."
I watched him play and decided the IPNP-DOWN neck profile was not a good match for his thumb structure. Unlike Tosin, who has a double-jointed back-bending thumb pad, Steve's hand is similar to my own: "I know you like it, but this is definitely not the right guitar for you."
So I sold the instrument to someone else.
A year later, Sjuggs contacted the 'someone else' and bought the guitar from him. Persistence sometimes wins.
By this point, we had become friends. Sjuggs said: "I think the reason my thumb hurt that first time I played Sketch was because of how long I played it."
"Okay. How long did you play it?"
"I think about five hours."
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