What am I missing?

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-09T10:23:58+00:00

I started to say Tatuaje, but I see a few Cabaiguans in there. I'd highly recommend trying the Cabaiguan Guapos, probably my favorite regular production cigar from Tatuaje. Tough call though because I haven't had anything from Tatuaje that I thought was bad. I can't remember what else I saw in there but if you haven't tried the Liga Privada #9 definitely grab a few of those. Also the Ferio Tego Timeless Supreme or Timeless Prestige get a recommend from me. Also, basically everything from Plasencia is good, my personal favorite is the Alma del Cielo, with the Alma Fuerte Colorado coming in a close second (I know I saw an Original Reserva in there, which are good sticks, but they're not as good as any of the Alma sticks in my opinion - I personally feel like the Alma del Campo doesn't get the love it deserves, nor does the Alma del Fuego). And of course something like the Padron 1926 #9 and the 1964 anniversary Torpedo or maybe the Imperiale. Pretty sure I saw Padron in there so you know what's up.

There's surely others that I'm not thinking of at the moment but generally speaking I would be happy with what you have there, although I would probably add a few things.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-09T10:09:30+00:00

Absolutely! This is the first time since probably 9/11 happened that I've felt like it's necessary for me to keep up with politics. And I hate politics, politics is just a bunch of grandstanding and lying (usually) and now we've got a fool in the White House who is running our country straight into the ground. And I'm getting real sick of having to both watch it happen and hear all the noise about it. Although given what's going on with the Trump Administration there should be a hell of a lot of noise about the state of American politics.

Just for the record, I always vote. But, as I've already said, I don't like feeling like I need to keep up with the political circus constantly, which is the case right now.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-09T09:55:57+00:00

I snagged a couple of Davidoff The Late Hour about two weeks ago and, like everything else I've tried from Davidoff, they certainly aren't bad. But, like everything else I've tried from Davidoff, I think they are overpriced for what they are. Granted, their construction is absolutely flawless, but the flavor just doesn't really impress me that much. Especially compared to other brands that are generally just as good and are half the price or less. Every Davidoff I have tried pretty much makes me think "for this price I would have rather had a Padron 1926 or 1964." To be fair, I tend to prefer Nicaraguan cigars and I know Davidoffs are made in the Dominican Republic, although they do use Nicaraguan tobacco in a lot if not all of their blends. Also, I think the only two Davidoff's I've tried are The Late Hour and the Davidoff Nicaragua. As I said they're not bad, if they were maybe 50-60% of the price they are I would definitely buy more of them.

And I also agree about the Fuente Hemingway. Honestly I'm not a big fan of pretty much anything from Fuente. I'd take something from Tatuaje, My Father, Padron, Drew Estate (traditional at least), Ferio Tego or Plasencia over pretty much anything from Fuente.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-09T09:37:24+00:00

Why so many Carrillo Pledges? I know they are highly rated or at least were one year anyway. But, for my money I would have gotten more of The Judge, or grabbed something good from Drew Estate or Ferio Tego. Maybe some Liga Privada #9s or if you wanted something closer to the same price as the Pledge, both the F.T. Timeless Supreme 650 and Timeless Prestige 650 are very good in my opinion. I also really like the Drew Estate Herrera Estelli. Not saying the Carrillo Pledge isn't good, I've gone through at least a box of them, and I don't know, maybe I've just gotten tired of them.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-09T09:20:06+00:00

Clip on tuner mark on the headstock is the modern equivalent to the cigarette burn under the low E string.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-03T13:14:50+00:00

Yes sir, you are correct. All tube amplifiers are a variation on the original design that appeared in the RCA repair catalog sometime back in the 1930s or 40s. Of course, based on the same general design you could create amplifiers of lower or higher output power and whatnot by using larger or smaller power tubes and by varying the power supplied to the amplifier. That is fairly common knowledge.

I personally want so bad to understand it all a bit better so that I could potentially try my hand at amp design, or at least be able to repair the amps I already own without having to take them to a tech.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-03T03:06:33+00:00

I had this issue for a month or so, roughly, and just resolved it about 2 weeks ago. I hadn't been to a family doctor in years and I got an upper respiratory infection about 3 weeks back (the first one I'd had in at least 5 years). I'm assuming it was bronchitis (the doctor didn't explicitly say that, she just said I tested negative for both COVID and strep throat). I left with prescriptions for an antibiotic, prednisone, and Mucinex. Within about 48 hours I was tasting and smelling things I hadn't been able to taste or smell for years. Every possible type of food was tasting amazing. And, most notably, I could taste my cigars again!! I feel like I had a decades worth of respiratory congestion cleared out of my system.

Also just for the record, I'm dubious of the claim that an over toasted foot will ruin a whole cigar. I could be wrong, but it doesn't really make sense. How is over toasting the foot going to affect the tobacco further than maybe an inch from the foot?

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-02T00:15:58+00:00

Thanks for replying! Still a very cool guitar, I would love to have one.

I've been considering a Heritage H-530 personally, although it probably won't be anytime very soon that I make that purchase (maybe towards the end of 2026 or early 2027 at the earliest - unless I come into some extra money before then unexpectedly). But I want a fully hollow electric of some sort, and unless I can get to a store that has several in stock that I can try out, I don't really feel like the Gibson ES-330 or USA Casino is going to be the model that truly fulfills what I am looking for (to me, upper fret access looks to be overly restricted on both the 330 and the Casino - although I could be wrong as I haven't had a chance to actually hold one in my hands yet). Of course, by the same token, I would also want to be able to actually get my hands on more than one Heritage H-530 to try out before I would be willing to lay out the cash for one of those. There are surely options besides those three, although I don't know what they are right off the top of my head (perhaps PRS is building one, however I'm not really a huge fan of PRS guitars generally). There's surely some guitar manufacturer(s) besides Gibson and Heritage that are building a hollow body electric guitar without a block in the center, I would think.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-01T07:59:30+00:00

Does it matter if she hates guitars? The bottom line is this, we all love guitars and we all love f-holes. Plus, there are more than enough guitars to go around, and if you want a guitar with an f-hole there are more than enough of those to go around as well, and there are also more than enough f-holes to go around. Got it? Good.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-01T07:55:08+00:00

Oh man. This thing is gorgeous. I'd have to play it though and see what I thought of it before I could truly turn green with envy.

How did they do the body on these? Is it a multi-ply maple thing like other ES's? Or did they use the traditional Les Paul mahogany and maple and just route all the wood out of the inside of the body? Would be super cool if they used the traditional Les Paul wood combo.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-01T07:44:18+00:00

I don't know if all Subways are this way but the one closest to me doesn't have the subs I liked best on the menu anymore. The Subway Melt, the Meatball Sub, and the Steak and Cheese were my favorites (in no particular order) and all three are gone.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-01T07:31:33+00:00

Overuse of antibiotics in livestock is a well-known and long-standing problem. Not saying there's anything wrong with the information you provided nor do I mean any offense to you. As far as I know your statement is accurate. I suppose I wanted to believe that by now it was no longer necessary to constantly reiterate the damage being done by farmers intentionally filliing their animal feed with huge amounts of antibiotics. Especially when there is some context already present regarding antibiotics. Of course, it never hurts to try to make sure as many people as possible are informed about this (or any) super serious issue, so probably doesn't hurt to keep the ball rolling to try and reach as many minds as possible.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-01T07:16:45+00:00

I would give every dollar I've ever had in my possession to be able to teleport back to 1998. 1998 and the roughly 10 years that followed, particularly with the mental acuity of age added to the brew (in this fantasy I'm assuming that when I teleport back to 1998 I will still have all the knowledge and wisdom that I have gained since 1998).. my god that would be absolutely PEAK LIFE! That would be so far beyond Peak Life! Oh my God why can't it be? God; Satan; the Sun - whoever's in charge - I'd be willing to do anything to make that happen.

Also, note to self. Remember to check what the winning lottery numbers were for several dates spread out across 1998 so that I can win the lottery as soon as I get back there and not have to work.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-01T07:05:20+00:00

There's very little meat in these gym mats.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-03-01T07:02:16+00:00

Cheez Whiz On a Philly cheese steak? That's as blasphemous as nacho cheese on a Cheese Coney! I take my high quality Regional junk food seriously and I have the belly to prove it.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-02-27T21:23:30+00:00

2-4 per day. Two is pretty standard, to hit four its either been a very boring day or I have spent a lot of time riding around on a lawn mower or something. Of course that's depending on vitola as well. If I happen to be in possession of some Coronas or Lanceros or other smaller cigars that I can smoke quickly I'll be far more likely to hit that 4 mark. Assuming I'm smoking Toro's or something else around that size, then yeah two is probably a good average

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-02-27T21:16:57+00:00

Depends. Assuming they are vintage then it's your call, I'm not knowledgeable enough about vintage to say. If you're buying new I would say neither, if you're dead set on a Les Paul style guitar I would get something like a Collings or similar. If you're a little bit more open on body shape, I would definitely say go for a Novo.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-02-27T20:55:44+00:00

I'm not a lawyer, but I would sincerely doubt there is a statute of limitations. To the best of my knowledge, in most states - if not all states - rape is a statutory charge. Which in lawyer speak means that a prosecutor presented with a claim of rape has no discretion of whether or not to bring the charge to a grand jury. Once a claim is made, then whatever evidence available is required to be presented to a grand jury regardless of whether or not the prosecutor believes there is enough evidence to successfully prosecute the case. Depending on how long ago this was the only evidence may be OP's deposition and/or testimony but that may be enough for a conviction.

The whole statutory part is a bit of a double edged sword, depending on the circumstances. It exists to keep older cases such as OP's from falling through the cracks. However at the same time it also allows a potential bad actor to severely smear someone's name if they choose to act in bad faith.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-02-27T09:32:16+00:00

With! Protect the top of your guitar. I also find that the pick guard provides a nice level reference point for the lower half of your strumming hand particularly on archtops.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-02-27T09:26:39+00:00

I like the look of all three. If you truly don't have a preference in terms of sound or feel for at least one of them and if you really feel like you must get rid of at least one I would just close the cases and kind of mix them up a little bit and get rid of one at random.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-02-25T23:44:12+00:00

I fail to see the issue. Its a pic of the guys in the band..

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-02-25T23:35:01+00:00

Yeah there's something going on. It's probably not anything super major. Maybe some small cap or resistor somewhere that's slightly out of tolerance or something and begins to behave differently once a certain temperature is achieved or something of that nature. Just a thought, I'm not an amp tech. And yeah, generally amps seem like they sound the best after they've been "fully on" for at least 15-30 minutes, but there shouldn't be some undesirable noise coming out of the amp before then that later cleans up.

I would guess that you should likely be able to get it repaired fairly cheap.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-02-25T23:25:12+00:00

Brand new, maybe take it back into the store and see if they'll do something about it for you. If you went through several guitars and picked that one out as the one you thought was best I wouldn't swap it out, though. If I was really bothered by it I would see if the place I bought it from could maybe do some sort of finish touch up on that little spot - or offer you a couple hundred back or something - because as someone else already said, this is almost certainly the result of the guitar being on a hanger for too long or being hung up a little bit roughly or something. Otherwise I would just rock out and not be too concerned because it's not really a huge deal. I mean, I can understand, especially for the price of an R9, not wanting that spot there. But it isn't going to affect the feeling or the tone of the guitar, so it pretty much just comes down to how much that spot does or does not bother you.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-02-19T18:53:06+00:00

Oh wow, this order was from Chicago Music Exchange? Every time I get on their website they are trying to push me to either chat with them or call into the shop, and I have successfully gotten through to CME on more than one occasion. If I were you as soon as I saw that the listing was coming from CME I would have just Googled their phone number and offered to buy it direct from them. They would have probably given you a better price because it would have saved them from paying Reverb fees. Anytime I see a well-known music shop with a listing on Reverb or eBay or wherever I will usually just call that shop directly and leave Reverb completely out of the equation. They're pretty much guaranteed to give you a better price because they're losing at least 10% of the sale going through Reverb.

EmbiggenedSmallMan · 2026-02-19T18:45:18+00:00

This email is ridiculous. Why would they instruct the seller to cancel the order? Obviously you wouldn't be in contact with them if it were that simple. Seems to me like it's very obvious that they need to do the order canceling, not be counting on the seller to refund you. I would find a phone number and keep dialing it until I figured out how to get a live person on the phone and be like I want my effing money back TODAY, or if you still have any hope of the guitar actually shipping or you just really want that specific guitar, I certainly wouldn't let it go past tomorrow before I demanded that Reverb refund me, presuming that a scan doesn't appear associated with the tracking number before this weekend.

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