Question for the gurus

[marcoloco961]

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 mobile 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 plays guitar in a band. He 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 comes into the venue, and who she comes in with". He agreed.

Saturday night came and I slipped behind my Marshall JCM800 half stack to get a good view. It wasn't long before I saw my wife come in with another guy. He bought them drinks and they sat down, conversing flirtatiously with eachother. Then, after a while, he got up to go to the bathroom, and she started flirting with the bartender! She wrote something (I'm assuming her cell number) on a bar napkin and gave it to him. He gave her a wink and a nod. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. My wife - the sweet little coquette!! At this point it was getting awfully warm for me. I was sweating. 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 need to take it to a technician?

(Signed)
Very Concerned

[dynaman]

Not sure why you posted this in "garage talk". A technical inquiry like this is better suited for "technical discussion"....unless you're looking to fix your gal too...

[selloutrr]

sounds like you aren't giving your girl or your amps the attention they need.

test the tubes if they are not all matched pick the best two put them in slots 2 and 3 and run the amp at half power. while you order a new matched set. adjust for the ohm load mismatch as well.

time to step up and win her back or cut your loss' and let her go. she just wants to feel needed it's "GIRLS 101" way less about who and all about the what, think back to why you won her over the first time and relight the spark.

if your tubes test matched, take it to a tech.

[marcoloco961]

I went ahead and traded the tramp for a really nice quad of matched NOS Mullard EL34's. All problems solved, thanks for the advice fellers.

[BTF]

Blast!...

And I was going to make a pun about her being biased "hot"!

[Cliff Schecht]

The hiding behind the JCM800 bit, spying on your own wife, and then suddenly noticing the amp is running goofy made me laugh pretty hard. I've been through a similar experience with a girlfriend and while sometimes it does look bad, it isn't always the woman cheating! She may have some friends that she doesn't want you to know about for whatever reason but I don't believe anything until I see it for myself (i.e. she's making out with other dudes).

[BTF]

I suppose I should be grateful...

I play mostly smaller combos and I'm too old to crouch behind them!

[marcoloco961]

Not to worry, I have had enough of the little albatross' behavior.

She left one night at 9PM without a dime to her name. When she got home at 6 the next morning she had $37.50. When I asked her what cheap bastard gave her 50 cents, she said "they all did". (Insert drum roll and cymbal crash here)

[Structo]

Yeah, that's an old joke/story that has floated around a long time.

I was a little worried that some of you thought it was real......

Just goes to show what is important to a gear head.

[marcoloco961]

Yeah, that's an old joke/story that has floated around a long time.

I was a little worried that some of you thought it was real......

Just goes to show what is important to a gear head.

I know..........some of the guys were givin me amp advice.......LOL.......Hehe

[dynaman]

Yeah, that's an old joke/story that has floated around a long time.

I was a little worried that some of you thought it was real......

Just goes to show what is important to a gear head.

I know..........some of the guys were givin me amp advice.......LOL.......Hehe

Mmmm....pretty sure everybody got the joke. Most respond to sarcasm with...sarcasm.

[butwhatif]

Sounds like she likes a fresh tube after every gig. Time to re-bias yourself
and show off your old NOS tube to some new clients.

[beakos]

"Sounds like she likes a fresh tube after every gig. Time to re-bias yourself and show off your old NOS tube to some new clients."

LOL! If you start taalking about running hotter and creamy distortion, I'm outahere!