Cradling a cup of coffee in my left hand, I sat at the kitchen counter as Steve Sjuggerud scrambled eggs. The lure of frying bacon would soon wake Mike Dawes — currently sleeping off a six hour time zone difference.
Steve was also simmering baked beans.
“Are beans a Southern breakfast specialty?” I asked. “I’ve had grits and gravy before…”
“Actually, they’re for Mike,” Steve replied. “I think the English like beans with breakfast.”
Photographer Adam King arrived, along with his cousin. “What’s with the beans?”
“They’re for Mike.”
Hoodie-draped Mike appeared, long pale arm extended. Grim Reaper seeks caffeine. “Why does everyone always make me beans at breakfast…?”
So, Mike’s Goshawk™ 6-string electric is nicknamed: Beanst.
Beast + Beans
PHOTO: Mike Dawes with his Goshawk™ 6-string electric guitar. (Photo: Adam King)IMAGE: Mike Dawes on Instagram.PHOTO: Future stadium tours and Marshall stacks loom. Acoustic guitar virtuoso Mike Dawes has been corrupted by the lure of distortion and pinch harmonics… (Photo: Adam King)
The Yellow Cab Prius slotted itself into an imaginary third lane. Horns are a tool to open opportunities, and my taxi driver was clearing our path to Wall Street. Touching 60 mph down the next block, tires chirping as we came to a dead stop mid-intersection, inches from the box truck bumper in front of us.
“Unexpected,” he muttered.
Yesterday, Steve Sjuggerud rang the closing bell for the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). He was also keynote speaker, presenting his film: New Money. I love Steve, and it was exciting to support him in his new venture, so lower Manhattan was the setting for our meeting this time.
Seven visible layers of security then an elevator ride, we stepped onto the trading floor.
Power is not a sufficient word, but is the precise word. Immersive powered electronic environment, labyrinthine, purposeful. On these screens, fortunes are made (and lost) in less than an instant. Capital from investors and central banks are injected into this abstract Darwinian metaphor, traded so fast that — even at the speed of light — proximity to the exchange matters, influencing real estate prices as companies compete to locate hardware closer to the NYSE.
The pulse of human ambition, the collective physical and intellectual labor of billions of people, flow through this space in fractional seconds.
Up in the balcony, Steve banged the iconic gavel and spontaneous cheers erupted around me as the trading day came to an end (Tuesday, April 16, 2019 @ 4 PM EST). Asia then Europe will carry things forward overnight then into tomorrow.
“Money flows to where it’s treated well.” (Steve Sjuggerud)
Later, at the reception, I balanced a small plate of exquisite medium rare porterhouse as Steve shared his initial impressions of the treble bleed capacitor on the wiring harness I’d sent him for testing. A few blocks away, Steve Blucher’s ears were no doubt tingling. Yes, talking guitars, Jack Ma and Warren Buffet looking on.
Just for a moment my concentration broke. An emotion, unfamiliar, a realization…an appreciation…as two worlds clicked together and I felt the course of this incredible journey in lutherie.
PS: Kind thank you to Steve Sjuggerud and his family (and staff).
PHOTO: Rick Toone @ NYSE.PHOTO: CNBC Closing Bell market recap live broadcast. April 16, 2019.PHOTO: Jack Ma (Alibaba) dominates the wall of financial leaders. Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway) lower right.PANORAMA: Floor of NYSE moments after Steve Sjuggerud rang the closing bell.PHOTO: Commemorative NYSE coin given to visitors.
PHOTOS: Scrimshaw is the art of engraving the bone or tooth of a powerful animal. Spearfish™ 6-string guitar drives Yngwie Malmsteen’s original 1969 Marshall.PHOTOS: Perhaps no mammal will ever (can ever) be as powerful as Herman Melville’s great white whale, Moby Dick. Nature, embodied. All that is untamed. You can recite the litany, but still it will not end with simply facts: patent pending Element™ aircraft aluminum neck, stainless steel Intonation Cantilever™ patented bridges, exclusive DiMarzio™ pickups, carbon fiber, resonant swamp ash.
My friend Geoff Waldron is an excellent songwriter. When I asked him to put Goshawk™ 6-string through her paces — Nashville style — Geoff composed two absolutely gorgeous pieces of music. Some people just have the ear…check out his playing.
Holy Moly!!
What an instrument! The box had no dents or damage and the guitar arrived safe and sound without a scratch. Still perfectly in tune and ready to play!
The guitar flat out feels like a beautiful woman… like touching the skin of a supermodel when I touch your guitar. The most amazing neck… I can’t even believe it.
You have a fine eye for detail… I should be so lucky to be working with such an accomplished artist such as yourself.
Truly an awe inspiring work of fine craftsmanship.
Truly makes my guitar collection seem like haphazardly constructed hunks of wood and metal. (Geoff Waldron)
