Mike wrote
I've been playing a (nominally 22W) Deluxe Reverb for over 20 years. It only has the one volume knob, so if you want it to overdrive you have to wind it up—I generally run it at about 6/10 with a Rangemaster in front of it for pushing the input levels when needed. And that's too loud for small gigs, but it's great for even the biggest gigs when a mic is in front of the speaker.
Lowering the input volume—which I do a lot—substantially changes the tone and cleans up the sound. It has surprisingly (if you're used to MV amps and a bunch of pedals) little impact on the output volume.
I've used modellers. Some of them sound just fine on a given setting. None of them provide the feedback that the right guitar-amp combo (with little or nothing in-between) can. No modeller I've ever used can replicate the effect of pushing the tubes by picking a little harder or relaxing them by winding back the volume control a little. And that changes the way you play, which the audience DOES notice. And yes, it makes a big difference to be pushing the power tubes and not just the pre-amp tubes as MV amps (or those with "dirty" channels) do.
Yes, having your trousers flapped by a stacked pair of 4X12s is great fun too, and everyone should experience it if they can, but I can live without carrying that stuff around, and the utter uselessness of it at gigs where the Deluxe Reverb is already too loud!
If I could get an amp with half the power that sounded as good, I probably would. But the problem with the DR is that it's about as sweet as they come...
This. So much this.
My two amps have variable voltage regulators built in, which one uses to set the power of the amp. So I can do exactly what you are doing, but I can match it to any venue, including my room. My two (non master volume) amps are 14 Watt and 18 Watt and would also have been way too loud otherwise.
