We drove 35 miles from LA to Agoura Hills and got it from a Craigslist ad for $375.00 =) It normally retails for around $999 at Guitar Center. Upon testing it the same day, I found it is WAYYYY too loud for my purpose. I found a sponge power attenuator around $200-300 as a dummy load..too expensive and not practical.
search...search...search...
THE SOLUTION:
I ended up using an Omnisonic Tube Amp Volume Control Box through the amp EFFECTS LOOP that i got from EBAY for $18 + 4.95 s/h. I can now play even at night and still get a saturated tube amp sound. It was worth every penny but it was made of plastic and looks like it wasn't built strong enough so I ended up getting another Omnisonic Tube Amp "Deluxe" Volume Control Box that was in a metal enclosure and same chicken head knob for $40+ on Ebay. I guess its now a special order since there are no posts today on EBAY from same seller for metal ones.
Planning to swap w/ biased 2 x Svetlana 6L6's and 1 x 12at7 on V1 tubes for lower gain. For clarification, V1 is the pre-amp tube for the clean channel, V2 is the pre-amp tube for the drive channel, but all the tubes are part of the same circuit. Changing V1 to a lower-gain tube will add clean headroom, but the signal will still go through part of V2, so it won't be as low-gain as if you were to replace both V1 and V2 with 12AT7s. Replacing V1 also reduces your gain on the drive channel, and if you change V2 to a 12AT7, it will reduce your gain on the drive channel even further. If you don't use the drive channel (or don't need much gain), then this may be fine.
I ended up never using the 2 drive channels because they're a little too harsh for my taste but
with the right setting i found it very usable with Drive on "3" and using 1st Channel with the following setting.
When Im using my Fender 50th Anniversary Strat...
My fave settings are:
Volume -> @ home = 2 @ jam practice = 3-4
Drive -> 3 (never used)
Treble -> 8
Bass -> 5
Middle -> 5
Master -> 4
Reverb -> 0 (never liked reverb)
Presence -> 8.5
When Im using my ESP LTD Deluxe EC-1000 w/ EMG 81s...
My fave settings are:
Volume -> @ home = 2 @ jam practice = 3-4
Drive -> 3 (never used)
Treble -> 8
Bass -> 7
Middle -> 7-8
Master -> 4
Reverb -> 0 (never liked reverb)
Presence -> 8.5-10
Here are some other settings that i fiddle around with;
