Great Topic!
2002, I had waited 9 months for the Mesa Boogie Road King (V1) to ship. My friend was a dealer and ordered SN 185 from the NAM show in LA. I still own that amp today. Anyway, I loved the sound of it, plugged into a Mesa 2-12 cab. Took it to my first gig, put a $75 SM57 mic on it and transformed that $2500 amp into a "bees in a can coulda been a $50 amp" kinda sound out front. I was not happy. I upgraded to large condenser mics and that helped a lot, still a pain and expensive. First live gig with my AXE FXII, direct to FOH back in 2012 - awesome! At home I play it thru studio monitors, and once in a while I'll send it thru my 2:90 and a 2-12 cab. Both sound great to me, but once I'm at a gig, the sound I get sitting at my desk doesn't matter compared to whats coming out the PA system. Regardless of location, I just need a little air contact to help the strings sustain correct.