jdgm

The best thing I did all week was on last Monday while waiting to be transferred to London. I was still in the Guildford ward, and there was a guy next to me who has throat cancer. Now any cancer gets painful but you don't want throat cancer at night - really nasty and it was pretty hard to listen to his pain every night. But we talked and he said he played a bit of guitar and liked Pink Floyd. Just before I was due to leave he asked me if I could write out the big 4-note riff to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" so he could learn it, and I did. Quickly sketched out 2 fret diagrams for the fingering, a few of the intro chords - C comes in underneath it then Eb7, D7 and to the Gmin and then the F to Gmin emphasis. And it was correct. That's what I gave him in about 2 minutes on the back of a bit of paper and explained it. That's what I can still do from memory even after not teaching for well over 25 years. Without having a guitar there either. I can hear it, visualise it and put it down in a way he could learn it. That was my heroic bit if there was one. Lucky me. Lucky me. Do you understand? I'll see you guys later. 🎸

Thankyou all again. I know how your father felt. Oh yeah it was stressful. Couldn't really be more stressful in fact. Especially when you find out it's not going ahead after 12 hours then 4 days. Blood pressure through the roof, no sleep, worry, even despair. My family have been the supportive ones - I'm not confident, badass or heroic at all. Fear, resignation...bit more fear...here's a bit of confidence...acceptance....no here comes the worry again. Ignore as best I can and get on with something. I don't conduct/control this either, unfortunately.....just have to carry on and accept it all as it comes. Should all be starting again tomorrow and let's hope the timingand harmonies are good. It is my gig, I can agree with that bit. I'm the piece being arranged and recomposed. Hoary old cliche - yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, today a gift. Unless you're a crap gambler which most of us are when it comes down to it. At least I've had a quiet weekend except for the neighbours' bloody great dog which came into my garden and stood there barking. It's never the dog it's the owner. That completely pissed me off. I've signed so they can use photos etc for teaching. I want some photos too. I'm going to ask for a bone souvenir.

"Fly Town Nose Blues" - Rahsaan Roland Kirk

I've just read this. R.I.P. I saw them in 69 and 70 at the Isle Of Wight festivals and they were the only band that could produce all the harmonies and complexities of their albums live. I thought they were bloody fantastic when I was 15. Still have "In Search Of The Lost Chord" on LP as well as the Deluxe CD package. Pinder worked for Mellotron at some point I think. Tremendous contribution to the sound.

Hello to everyone from me - JDGM This is a shortened summary but still a long post, so please bear with me. First my biggest heartfelt thanks to Rabs and to every one of you. I have been moved to tears lots with all the support from ALL of my family and friends I've managed to tell about this so far. Here's short resume of whats gone on and not gone on, to date....... Prelude; I strained my back and ribs moving furniture in spare room Xmas 2022 (yes way back then). But it didn't get better at all. I went to a chiropractor right after that, and in March also got crippling sciatica in my right leg. I stopped taking some blood thinner pills (Edoxaban) I'd been put on immediately prior to the back strain, and it got a bit better over the rest of the year (2023). However in mid Jan this year the sciatica suddenly came on so hard I couldn't walk; and then I noticed my ribs were starting to hurt again, more and more. I was still thinking it was muscle strain - and I've always had a back problem inherited from my Dad. We played a jazz gig Fri April 5th which I found very diffficult sitting or standing. Next day the sax player phoned up to chat and - hearing my voice and me telling him that it hurt to breathe - immediately told me I must go to A&E or he would call an ambulance. You cannot and don't argue with this guy when he is in that mood, and I phoned my sister who lives 10 miles away and got her to take me to the main Accident and Emergency dept at the Royal Surrrey Hospital in Guildford, also fairly near me. X rays, return for scan next morning. USA members please understand that the National Health Service in UK is free, as you pay a monthly contribution all your working life. Result; widespread emphysema, potential lung cancer upper right lobe, pulmonary hypertension. Bigger more detailed MRI/CT scan scheduled for week after. Returned for big scan Sat 20 April. 2 hours after getting home from this, called back to hospital as inpatient as scan indicated I urgently need an emergency operation. Main problem; vertebra number T8 has collapsed and has a growth on it, now threatening to impact my spinal canal. That was always the inherited bit. After a week of tests etc I was ambulanced up to Atkinson Morley London spinal unit on Monday 29th April. On the emergency list for op...but.... after assessment they realised I've still very fortunately got all the feeling in my trunk/back/legs/feet so I kept getting put to the back of the queue to be operated on. It is the main S London and outlying area trauma/spinal centre after all, and people have serious accidents etc daily and nightly in droves in big cities. So I lay in a hospital bed all week waiting, getting very stressed and reading all your incredibly heartening and strengthening messages on a mobile phone screen. I didn't have my forum password so couldn't post, but once again thanks to Rabs, my beautiful wonderful niece Mesho and my sisters. So now it is the May Day Holiday weekend in this country, which includes Monday. This morning I was removed from the emergency list and put on the elective list, which is simply the list of less frantically serious ops they have to do. I was driven home this evening and they will call me on Monday, collect me - they'll have to - and take me in for the scheduled back operation on Tuesday. 3-5 hours from start to finish depending on any complications etc. I may still get pushed down the queue but it should get done this next week; then some days recuperation, and if no complication or infection I come back home again for convalescence. The operation is to completely remove vertebra T8 and put in carbon screws and short pins or very small rods. The distances are millimeters. After 4 weeks there will be some intensive radio/immuno/chemotherapy, and that is when I will also become a lung cancer patient. The spinal unit in London is not involved in that, so I will have to have a lung biopsy (probably general anaesthetic) but not for at least a month I think. That is where things stand now, 4 May 2024. I'm very glad to be home tonight instead of in a stuffy hospital bed with lights and alarms going off all night. I have to wear a back brace until the op is done or just stay in bed rest. They gave me a big one to wear (they want it back after) and I have another couple of cheapies I can wear at home if it gets too uncomfortable. I can feel the T8 vertebra is at a nasty angle collapsed and sticking out - and am being very careful. I still have some mild sciatica; but I am certain this too will go when they remove the vertebra. I am on steroids and a number of other things for pain, prostate, gut management and so on. And when I walked back into my little house tonight I immediately realised that everything has changed. Cancer? Oh yes I did it. I smoked cigarettes daily from 1969 to 2014 and more contraband than Bob f***in' Marley at one time. And you can believe me or not; but the latter enabled me to function normally and far, far better than I would have without it for many years. There are logical reasons I won't detail here and now. I loved it. My Dad was a far heavier tobacco smoker than me. He died because of what it did to him; not cancer but an aortic aneurysm during heart bypass surgery, 1977. The giant tobacco companies did a very effective advertising job for decades, as we all know. If you do insist on inhaling the smoke from burning vegetation at 100 degrees into your lungs for a long time (search for ingredients of cigarettes) then there will be adverse consequences. I'd rather cancer wasn't there (they think 90% chance but must be confirmed by biopsy) but I regret none of it. No point. As it's pretty damn sure I have cancer, then it's mine isn't it? I OWN it. Not the other way around. Once I'm out of hospital and at home again - which is at least a week or more away - I will be posting once more. And I thank you all again from the bottom of my heart. My very best wishes John jdgm P.S. The new Scott Henderson CD is really good IMO.

He was 80 and in very poor health; had retired from music in 2017 but he did have an incredible life. Part of the soundtrack to my youth; I still have the albums. He wrote some of the Allmans best tunes. R.I.P.

"Good Evening Everybody" - Sonny Boy Williamson

Go to top right where the circle J and your name are. Left click on your name or the arrow next to it and you should get drop-down menu; Profile, My attachments, Settings, sign out etc. Avatars have to be under a certain size (it tells you).......you may have already found out that to upload any other photos here, you need a (free) image-hosting account. Upload photos to there and copy/paste the Direct Link it shows you straight into your post on this forum.

"Harlem Air Shaft" - Duke Ellington

Condolences and best wishes T-Man. You have been missed.

Hi I also llive in the UK (SE), am 70 in June and was there that night too, to see Jimi. It waas freezing cold and windy by the time he came on. Your 1967 ES-330 will be worth ££££ now! To post photos here you have to join an image-sharing website (free - Imgur, Postimage, etc) and upload your photos to that. Then when you want to put one in, you copy the 'Direct Link' code it gives you on the site and paste that in. Best wishes!

"In Your Own Sweet Way" - Dave Brubeck

I once had about 15 mins with a blue Fulldrive which had those extra little switches. It sounded superb - transparent and sensitive. You don't need a KOT with that and the OCD onboard! 🎸

It is a fairly standard design; right-to-left dual od/dist with the od/boost on the right. It has DIP switches inside which you can use to change the character of each side from clean boost to od to distortion. The knobs for each side are; Vol, Drive (gain) and Tone. The manufacturer makes the point that it is 2 pedals, 2 circuits in one box, not a single circuit and neither is a Tubescreamer or BluesBreaker copy. It does not add the midrange 'hump' that a Tubescreamer does. The newest ones (V4 I think) have other options which you can specify when you finally get to the top of the list and order one. However the main thing is that is simply sounds so good and is so versatile. It's just the best, most articulate od/distortion I've had, not that I've tried them all. If you want to drive an amp, Klon-style, it can do that; if you want a bluesy od which cleans up when you turn the guitar vol down, it does that very well indeed. If you have both channels on at once you can get into Robben Ford/Dumble territory (and it sounds better at that than the Xotic AC+) or hairier/grittier, depending on what amp you are using. However it is not a 'metal' pedal. $700 is a bit high IMO (depends on what version and what options) but over here in the UK s/h ones are going for around £500-600. OTOH since it came out everyone has jumped on the dual od/distortion bandwagon, for instance the Wampler site alone lists 5 different dual od variations including 'signature' models - Brent Mason, Brad Paisley, etc. Wampler have a considerable rep and I think those would be worth hearing. https://www.wamplerpedals.com/products/c/distortion-overdrive/ I will also say that the Xotic AC+ is a very useable/useful pedal (one side is based on a Tubescreamer) with features like being able to change A>B to B>A, and tone boost; now out of production, these are incredibly cheap s/h, less than $100, and at that sort of price it's well worth picking one up. Same with the Xotic BB+ which has more crunch and goes for a little more. And made in USA AFAIK. A pretty good MIC clone will cost you even less, of course: https://affordaboard.co.uk/browse-stock/ols/products/king-of-drive Best wishes Caliman!

I got an Ibanez DCF10 after getting deeply into "Eyewitness" Steve Khan. In one of his music books he describes using the DCF10 in some detail. There is reference to it here on his excellent website. http://www.stevekhan.com/equipment.htm The guitar sound on that 1982 album was beautiful. The rhythm section is Anthony Jackson, Steve Jordan and Manolo Badrena and the combination sounds fantastic. One of the best guitar LPs of the 80s for me. The King Of Tone; I got on the list and got mine in about..2013? Here's the page, scroll for history - https://www.analogman.com/kingtone.htm Dual overdrives - I also had a VS Jekyll&Hyde vs 1 (now gone) and a Xotic AC+ (used this for years as my main drive pedal) which I still have. Then I got the KOT and didn't keep up with all the new dual pedals coming out. IMO it deserves its considerable reputation but I think the waiting list is 4-5 years now! So many more excellent dual ODs on the market these days which probably are comparable, cost less and can be bought right away.. The choice seems endless AFAIK. The silver box is an analog delay pedal built by Dub-T-123 of this forum. Hold down switch on the left to max out the feedback. I think the he said the circuit is similar to a Mad Professor Deep Blue delay, anyway it has great tone and the controls are volume, delay time, mix and feedback. I like analog delays and have 4. The Eventide Ultratap is another thing, however.