Listener 4189, 8 by 13

[Zabadak]

Best of luck with this one, everybody. I nearly quit with it being a carte blanche (sort of - at least we have word lengths) with indeterminate numbers of letters to be removed from clues, clashing letters and mysterious curves in the grid AND (dammit) yet another hunt the missing words game made extra tricky by having to guess the setter's name.
I'm still puzzled by that last bit: "extended sequence" is open to all sorts of interpretations and, while I have the theme, I'm inclined to think I may not know when I've reached the answer the setter intends for entry under the grid. You know how cheesed off I can get with that!
Up to there, a (just about) fair challenge and a tidy enough construction, so as far as that goes, thanks setter, you know who you are even if I don't!

[Zabadak]

Askival: how incredibly prescient of you. It seems we don't have that saving week, and clue 1 of 4190 is (H+AA)N(A+H). Different letters, same lack of appeal.

[taittinger]

Ah yes an email address would be useful. It's [email protected]. Many thanks in advance

[BlackHugh]

taittinger - I've sent you an e-mail

[borealis]

Whew! A week and a day, so I don't suppose anyone is still attending to this thread, but what a great crossword. As usual, the preamble is precise, and as usual, I disregarded the part of it which would have helped. Glad to see this site not revealing much at all, this week, but still full of enthusiasm. An extended sequence of thanks, ******** (no significance to the number of stars).
And now to download 4190; arrgh - more counting! Well you can't quite spell "CHOCOLATE" but I bet "MOAN" will be spelled more than once in next weeks thread.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, Vetuste_ennemi, I think you got that exactly right. I am not a 'founding father', as, like all AB threaders, I arrived a couple of years ago with an over explicit question and was smartly told that. Now I am among those who moan when an over-explicit answer is given but am happy to give a helping hand to newcomers off-line as I really believe that solving the listener is a learning process and some guidance to new arrivals is fair enough. This week's thread has been admirably restrained for what has been an outstanding crossword.

[piano_maths]

4190 in the post - but I cannot find the title or setter for 4189. Any clue/hint would be appreciated (I've looked in the grid, in a thematic way for all the setters from 2011, found only one - but no title). Spent about a week on this very final part and pretty frustrated! [email protected] - thanks!

[letletlet]

Listener 4189: I have read all the interesting comments, but I still can't figure out what to do next. It's the "extended sequence" that's bugging me; the rest of my grid is looking very pretty. Any hint much appreciated: [email protected]

[IainGrace]

Letletlet/Piano Maths, you need to think thematically. Think of a way of analysing the grid that chimes with the theme to date. I am afraid that no amount of staring at the grid will render the solution, as the letters appear in what looks like random isolated order if you haven't cracked it.

[ArchieLeach]

I've been doing what you suggest, IainGrace (in between fiddling with my little cubes), but nothing leaps out at me.

No doubt I will be kicking myself when the answer is published, as I was with the Klein bottle.

[Postigod]

Wow, just wow!

Finally came back to this one yesterday, having finished 4190 - I'd sat for most of last week with 3 or 4 clues done only, and was severely lacking any PDMs on some pretty tough clues. As usual, repeated staring on the train finally yielded a breakthrough and completion of most of the right hand side of the grid plus the second half of the "assistance" from the deleted letters. Shamefully given my education, the theme took a little while to fully crystallise, but once that PDM landed, everything else dropped into place quite smoothly - title and setter appeared straightforwardly for me although as I've only prioperly being attempting non-numerical Listeners for around the last 7 months, not a setter I'd come across before.

Really looking forward to a setters blog on this one - a work of art that must have sent the setter round and round in circles trying to construct!