Pupil because I'm in high school/high school aged.I discovered the Dead maybe a year ago while surfing YouTube. I'm a fan of the Black Crowes and was listening to Chris Robinson's solo stuff when I came to a video of him playing Sugaree. I liked it, found out it was a Grateful Dead song, and found a link to one of their shows - Downhill from Here, the '89 concert. I liked it, listened to them for a couple weeks, then moved on, back to CRB and TBC. I'm kind of surprised, looking back, that it happened that way - I almost think it should have been through the Allman Brothers instead... whatever. I rediscovered them a little while ago and really got into it this time. I was a little better prepared too after spending last year growing my hair out 
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Also, I've been playing guitar for about a year, though I'm told my capabilities (for certain aspects) greatly surpass what would be expected of a year of guitar playing. You see, my teacher just let me pick songs and we'd work on the riffs and solos and some rhythm, and he introduced almost all of those ideas to me through that. Now I can improvise to no end - to think I used to wonder how Jerry could keep up those extended jams! - and can solo just as well... although I can't quite play Freebird yet
. I'm just too lazy to memorize the order. Dorian is a bit more challenging. I'm getting it, even though it doesn't come as easily. But I never learned my notes or chords well - I did everything by ear, so now he's trying to introduce rhythm playing to my abilities and it's coming really slow because I have trouble with even some bar chords! It's coming... slowly.
My current rig is a Gibby Firebird 70's Tribute through some small Fender amps - my preferred is actually this cute little Fender 10 watt Frontman 10G. I have a bigger Fender one... I can't remember the model, it says FM25 DSP on it... my memory's slipped me... the crap load of homework this week has finally gotten to my head... anyway, I don't like the tone it gives me with the powerful mini-buckers playing through it, so I use it as a booster/preamp for the Frontman. I plug the guitar into the "FM25 DSP" (insert model name here), then plug another cable into the head phones jack (because for some reason Fender made this amp with a jack that fits instrument cables), then that goes into the Frontman. It gives my playing more treble and mids - the Frontman by itself, though it can get gritty when you turn up the gain, is a little heavy on base and light on attack. It's good for some situations, but I find what I'm doing right now is better sounding, and more versatile. Odd method of reaching tone, but it works, and it can get pretty loud, too (I still play Crowes stuff in addition to Dead, as well as Allmans and a few other - mostly blues stuff). I have to mess around with two sets of controls, but it has been to my advantage so far. Anyway, that's me.
Hi, how's it going?
.Also, I've been playing guitar for about a year, though I'm told my capabilities (for certain aspects) greatly surpass what would be expected of a year of guitar playing. You see, my teacher just let me pick songs and we'd work on the riffs and solos and some rhythm, and he introduced almost all of those ideas to me through that. Now I can improvise to no end - to think I used to wonder how Jerry could keep up those extended jams! - and can solo just as well... although I can't quite play Freebird yet
. I'm just too lazy to memorize the order. Dorian is a bit more challenging. I'm getting it, even though it doesn't come as easily. But I never learned my notes or chords well - I did everything by ear, so now he's trying to introduce rhythm playing to my abilities and it's coming really slow because I have trouble with even some bar chords! It's coming... slowly.My current rig is a Gibby Firebird 70's Tribute through some small Fender amps - my preferred is actually this cute little Fender 10 watt Frontman 10G. I have a bigger Fender one... I can't remember the model, it says FM25 DSP on it... my memory's slipped me... the crap load of homework this week has finally gotten to my head... anyway, I don't like the tone it gives me with the powerful mini-buckers playing through it, so I use it as a booster/preamp for the Frontman. I plug the guitar into the "FM25 DSP" (insert model name here), then plug another cable into the head phones jack (because for some reason Fender made this amp with a jack that fits instrument cables), then that goes into the Frontman. It gives my playing more treble and mids - the Frontman by itself, though it can get gritty when you turn up the gain, is a little heavy on base and light on attack. It's good for some situations, but I find what I'm doing right now is better sounding, and more versatile. Odd method of reaching tone, but it works, and it can get pretty loud, too (I still play Crowes stuff in addition to Dead, as well as Allmans and a few other - mostly blues stuff). I have to mess around with two sets of controls, but it has been to my advantage so far. Anyway, that's me.
Hi, how's it going?
Whatever. Works to my advantage. 
I did make a couple of converts and got my metal head buddies to respect Garcia's playing after taking them to Cap Centre '82. They did do me a favor of dragging me to see Ozzy and Randy Rhoads right before he died.
). I'm sure you know how it is though. A community feels things together. By the way, I'm happy to be part of this one, peace to you all, before I get any more sentimental