What he said. I suspect most people are setting the MV way too high, especially if using the Modern modes. In Modern mode there is no negative feedback so the power amp can flub out real quick.
Yeah, I think back to when I had my 5150 head and 4x12. That's when I learned about linear taper vs. audio taper volume knobs. I'm not an engineer, but there is probably not as much of a difference in actual volume between a 100 watt amp with the master set to 4-5 vs 7. I think 70-80% of the volume is there after the knob goes past 4. SO there is a lot more dramatic and useable volume between 0 to 4, than there is from 5 to 10, per se. The differences are how the tubes are handling the wider open master volume and what it does to the tone. In this case - FLUB.
I remember seeing a photo of Eddie's head and he had his master set to 4. He probably slaved that into a power soak, or you know, in an arena, it didn't matter. If I put that thing on 4, pictures would fall off the walls and china plates would fall down in the china cabinet. But that's apparently where HE (the person Peavey was trying to please) thought the amp operated the best. It did sound magical at that setting.
If another dude attempted to operate their 5150 with the master at 7 or God forbid, at 10, and was trying to emulate EVH's tone, and assumed EVM would naturally "turn all the dials to 10" they would become frustrated, since the amp would behave completely differently at those settings.
Maybe a similar line of thinking is in play here with the Recto tone chasers. There may not be a lot of difference in volume between 4 and 7, but it radically changes how the power tubes respond, and it makes everything more flubby. The fact that we have another overall level control after the whole amp model, makes it a pointless exercise to attempt to run the model at something higher than where it sounds good, since we can bring that tone up or down in the preset after we get the tone to sound right.
But it's fun and interesting to read about the pursuits of tone chasers.
