Signed, "Very Concerned"

Dear Abby,

I think my wife is cheating on me.

I am a working musician and, as you would expect, travel a lot. I have been noticing strange things happening when I get home. Her cell phone rings and she steps outside to answer it or she says, "I'll call you back later". When I ask her who called, she gets evasive.

Sometimes she goes out with friends but comes home late, getting dropped off around the corner and walking the rest of the way. I once picked up the extension while she was on the phone and she got very angry.

A buddy of mine, who is also a guitar player, told me that my wife and some guy have been to his gigs. He wanted to borrow my guitar amp. That's when I got the idea to find out for myself what was really happening.

I said, "Sure, you can use my amp but I want to hide behind it at the gig and see if she shows up, and who she shows up with."

He agreed.

Saturday night came and I slipped behind my Marshall JCM800 half stack to get a good view. I could feel the heat coming off the back of the amp. It was at that moment, crouching down behind the amp, that I noticed that one of the tubes was not glowing as bright as the other three.

Is this something I can fix myself or do I need to take it to a technician?

Signed,
Very Concerned

...a tip of the hat to Dawna Nelson.