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I have a completed grid and the message from the misprints, but cannot understand what to do, especially as I have not been able to solve any of the 3 thematic clues. Has anybody progressed further than this?

The last word of the message from the corrected misprint should tell you what the common definition of the three clues is.

As the instructions say, consider the entire grid as Dipper's garden and do what the last 5 words of the message says.

That's what I had originally thought and I have now found 3 of the items in the grid, two of which correspond to the thematic clues. But the third baffles me - the word I've found is M*L (* representing a number of letters) but how does that relate to the clue about the guitarist? I'm not up in guitarists, Blues or otherwise.

I haven't finished yet (stuck on the top lefthand half), but I had guessed the third of the Thematic Clues and your post has given me the first. The solution is that if you add one of the musical notes (abcdef, which has been "plucked") to what you have you get a reasonably famous British blues guitarist whose first name is John.

Thank you Barretter. All complete now and am happy to give any hints required, though the wordplay in 18 and 38 across did defeat me.

18A GNA(W) in AIL
33A I'm still pondering.

18A is a combination of "AIL" and "GNA(W) ("distress"). 38A probably means "adApting" another word for aridity.
I would welcome hints for1A, 10A, 11A, 13A, 14A, 1D, 3D, 4D, 5D, 6D. Rather a lot!

For 33a the definition is the first word, and then the misprint turns pears into a noun that's a synonym for a three-letter word, of which you use only the first two letters ("cut").

10a the misprint is in the definition part, looking for a six-letter name for a joint and take the middle four letters for the grid entry.

13a "with Ladbrokes initially" = wl, replacing the letter d in a word for "dealers".

1d Look for a word meaning "standard" with the letters OUR in sequence.

4d "Leading pair of cartographers" is just CA.

6d The subsidiary indication requires finding a loose synonym for "power" with 7 letters, one of which is a t (for time), that is then removed (the misprint is in "War").

Barretter. 1A Think of a type of cloth beginning with C (best part of) and then add two letters. 5D Think of another word for tries.
Can anyone give me a hint for the second thematic clue

Move back the 'a' in a word for strain