Hello from and old Stalwart

[AJSki2fly]

Hello Guys and Girls,

Sorry I have not been around for a while now, I thought I should pop in and say hello. I hope you are all keeping well and spinning those tunes.

I have not been about because I started playing guitar again in Aug 2024, after Sue (my wife) was given a Spain's guitar by a friend and saying 'Give it to Adrian and tell him to have another go.'. So that was that and instead of playing records/CDs everyday I now pick up a guitar. I realised after a month I was hooked again and I purchased a Telecaster copy, an Aria Nashville and a small amp, then in Nov 24 I treated myself to a lovely cherry red Gibson ES335. I now have several other guitars and another amp. In January this year I was shocked to win a Gibson SJ-200 acoustic on GuitarGearGiveaway, a £4K guitar for £10.76 of raffle tickets a 1 in 500 chance, I could not believe it.

An ex-colleague, who has played guitar for years, recommended JustinGuitar.com to me early on. Justin Sandercoe has been around on Youtube since the early 00s putting out Video lessons and a few years ago he put it all together on his web site. By coincidence he lives just down the road in Farnham, Surrey near where we used to live, and I had seen him around playing in the past. There are free lessons, from grade 1 to 7, with 8 and 9 planned, beginner to expert, they are extremely well structured and there are a number of support tools including an extremely good and friendly Forum where you can get advice and feedback if you choose to post videos of you playing. I joined Justin's 6 month Blues Immersion (BLIM) course in July 25, a cost of around £600 and worth every penny, each month is a new unit of lessons with support material and backing tracks, exercises, licks and songs to learn. It starts with Delta Blues and moves through the evolution of the Blues over the last 100 years. BLIM is quite intense and IMHO you need to allow at least 1.5 - 2 hours a day practicing, around 10-15 hours a week, even then you are very unlikely to cover everything in each monthly unit, there is so much that you will be coming back to it for several years at least. Life stuff got in the way in Oct and Nov 25 and so I struggled to keep up and rejoined BLIM in January for a small fee to refresh and go through what I missed the first time, which is what I and doing most days now. If you are into guitar, want to learn or just improve I would recommend that you have a look at Justin's site, if you are not into the Blues, Justin is releasing a Rock Immersion course in September this year. By the way i know a lot of folks on AoS are a bit older but do not think it is too late to learn guitar if it is something you always wanted to do, there are a lot of people in there 50's, 60's and older on JustinGuitar and some did not start until in their 70's.

On another note my HiFi system has not changed now for 2 years, although I have built a HiFi unit using the LP storage I already had and some 18mm ply sheet, a picture is below. I think it has worked out quite well, when doing some proper listening I move the sofa around and move the speaker a bit further apart, its not perfect but Sue is much happier and it has got the LP storage away from being under the TV which made the room feel like a corridor. I no longer need to use the 4m EWA speaker cables which I have just advertised and can now use some rather nice 1.5m cable that I held onto for over 30 years.

I have purchased a few records and CD's recently mainly Blues or Blues/Rock and would recommend a few below, especially the BB King Summit 100, it is is celebration of BB's songs with performances from some very famous Blues artists, the quality is exceptional and well worth listening to. If you are not familiar with Roy Buchanan then his 1st 2 albums are a must listen, he is one of our unsung UK Guitar greats.

That's all from me for now folks, I shall try and pop in a bit more often. All the best,

Adrian

https://i.postimg.cc/t4tpJBbr/Screenshot-2026-04-09-at-08-51-25.png

https://i.discogs.com/kFl52RpWkC_-H1UeCIBNdvZ7yyg6zOku9qI7KQWZdxA/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:599/w:598/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE0NTA5/NDktMTM0NjQ0MTcy/NC0zODE0LmpwZWc.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/rAsd0OEQ_WFtjCCh-8hOAPCigCOKWUUcaw1lKRum97A/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIwNzIy/NTgtMTQ0MDI3NjMy/NS0zMDk2LmpwZWc.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/BEfH8Q5nFqVTwOEod5ZeJzkQjMhdgQQf7N_3tG7Ps3c/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:590/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTM2NDIz/NDk2LTE3NzI1NTMy/NjUtNjk0NC5qcGVn.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/9tF4xj01aCCfJePEAKj4it_WyTNuy50SxIB4vqQ81jM/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:598/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQwMTY5/MDUtMTc2MjcwNDQ5/Mi00OTkyLmpwZWc.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/LGLE4-16k25ZlqosSGRTZOdiSCiamrCu9dgtzlrv2_Y/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQ0MDQw/NDUtMTQ2MDU0NTc4/Mi02OTgyLmpwZWc.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/un4MJRdElSi5ZAZQa7lP8rdNYPVj88Y4Kl3EewgU7l0/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:574/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI1MzQ3/MDEtMTQwNDQxNzYz/NC03OTI5LmpwZWc.jpeg

[Barry]

Hello Adrian,

Thanks for the update. I know very little about guitars save for recognising names. Your winning a Gibson guitar in a raffle was an wonderful piece of luck - well done.

All the records you list are excellent.

Wishing you many happy hours playing and listening.

Regards
Barry

[Macca]

I like your record storage it looks really good.

I have an ES339 but only a copy I'm not good enough to justify owning a real Gibson :)

[rmcin626]

Hi Adrian,

Good to see you back on the forum, and very well done, enjoy making music something I wish I was able to do.

[AJSki2fly]

I like your record storage it looks really good.

I have an ES339 but only a copy I'm not good enough to justify owning a real Gibson :)

Thanks Martin, great to hear form you. I did not know you played, have a look a JustinGuitar it may spur you on to pick it up more.:)

[AJSki2fly]

Hi Adrian,

Good to see you back on the forum, and very well done, enjoy making music something I wish I was able to do.

Hi Robin, hope you are keeping well, why not give it a go, if you like guitar that is,. To get to playing a few chords and some songs is not too hard and can be quite satisfying, it takes a bit pf patience to start with, beyond that its up to the individual how far they want to go.

[rmcin626]

Hi Robin, hope you are keeping well, why not give it a go, if you like guitar that is,. To get to playing a few chords and some songs is not too hard and can be quite satisfying, it takes a bit pf patience to start with, beyond that its up to the individual how far they want to go.


Unfortunately too old now and the fingers are probably not up to it anymore, will just enjoy listening

[Macca]

Thanks Martin, great to hear form you. I did not know you played, have a look a JustinGuitar it may spur you on to pick it up more.:)

Sometimes I try to learn songs off youtube tutorials but I don't have any natural aptitude, I don't pick it up quickly so get bored.

Been playing since I was about 14 and not got much better. Can play chords and a bit of one-note BB King style lead but that's about it.

[AJSki2fly]

Sometimes I try to learn songs off youtube tutorials but I don't have any natural aptitude, I don't pick it up quickly so get bored.

Been playing since I was about 14 and not got much better. Can play chords and a bit of one-note BB King style lead but that's about it.

Have a look at Justinguitar, what you say seems to be a common theme which most people seem to get over with Justin's approach.

[Macca]

Have a look at Justinguitar, what you say seems to be a common theme which most people seem to get over with Justin's approach.

I'll check it out. Last thing I learned was 'Here Comes The Sun' and I had it down but when I came to play it again I'd forgotten it. I was same with piano, got to grade 2. I even gave a couple of recitals (only pretty simple stuff) and briefly played keyboard in a mate's band, and then I didn't play for decades. A couple of years back sat down at a piano and thought it would be like riding a bike but I couldn't recall anything not even the scales.

[AJSki2fly]

Yep, don't use it you loose it, I did a BTEC Music Performance course for 2 years in 2003, we had to learn and perform 3 new songs every 2 weeks, and improves over 12 bars on at least one, it was intense to say the least. I have a folder with at least 75 songs(heads) in it, a mix of Rock/Pop and light Jazz and I would struggle to play any of them. When I picked up guitar in 2024 I struggled to play open chords and my rhythm was all over the place, I might as well have been starting as a beginner, I went back to basics and that's why I stuck with JustinGuitar as it helped me to get going again, but I put some serious practice in 3-4 hours a day. I would say I am approaching what might be called intermediate level now but struggle with quite a lot still.

[Macca]

3 to 4 hours a day is a lot of practice! I admire your dedication.

[Alex_UK]

Hi Adrian, good to see you around and glad you are well and enjoying the strumming!

I have dabbled over the years with keyboards, guitars and drums - crap of all trades and master of none! I bought a guotar (Cort Stat copy I think) about 20 years ago and did try, maybe should dig it out!

Son has taken to the drums, also saxophone, daughter is still loving the clarinet and saxophone and both play piano, so living my musical life vicariously through them!

Hif-fi looks great setup that way. I need to sort something out for the living room and get a turntable in there...

[User211]

I think we need some photos of those guitars...:)