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Hello
yes, i think the majority of people these days would agree that the MV is a more than useful feature, probably almost a neccesity. Valve amps are expensive, and most people own a fairly powerful amp and need to try to get it rockin' in the bedroom between gigs, without the neighbours trying to unscrew their heads. Somehow way back, i realised that the old amps had to be dialled up to 5 or 6 on the dial before they started to get fat, (the amps, i mean, not the players....), and then i was stuck with THAT volume? "What to do when i need other volume levels?" i asked myself at the tender age of 17. Simple....buy several amps of different sizes. My life has been based on that, and all the things that go with it....owning several amps and huge vehicles to transport several amps (and many guitars) to gigs. That was the seventies. Now i am a dinosaur. I accept that now it is harder and most people can only afford one decent amp and have to try to cover all the bases, and travel to gigs in the family sedan. Now i build amps and my friends complain that the AC4's i have built them are too loud (Ah! i love it !!!)
Most MV's cause the sound to thin out at bedroom levels, and sound cheap. My opinion is that the Matchless-style master, across the outputs of the PI is the best of the bunch, the least tone-destroying. As you say, Coco, a MV that can de disabled is the best all-round compromise.
However.....and this is just me.....'compromise' and 'rock'n'roll' somehow are polar opposites. My solution has always been.....to get real, REAL good.....to the point that people will not question the volume....for example......i have lived in houses where occasionally a band rehearsal would take place.....occasionally i would encounter a neighbour and the subject of the domestic rehearsal would come up......there would be the usual grovelling..."errm...hope we didn't disturb you TOOOO much the other day....".......and so often i have been told...."NO, not at all....in fact we opened all our windows and wished you had played for longer".
I have played for a very long time, and built a lot of amps. Not one has had a MV control. This is purely an opinion, and from a minority area, but i think i am qualified to say that....no matter how brilliant we may become in the technology, it is all about the usage....we design and build and tweak amps for what? Ultimately, to entertain...ourselves and possibly others (well...hopefully to entertain, rather than to annoy....hehe). Lots of people want and need to try to sound like sounds of hell and death and Ozzy and all the rest in the confines of their appartment late at night with the wife and kids asleep nearby. There is even the cult now of people looking to build tube amps of 1/2 - 1 watt output because things like the AC4 are just too darn loud.
If i have had to use a MV amp, i have always run them 'backwards'....put the MV up high and keep the preamp volume low, to stay away from that dreadful thin buzzy sound. I have met a few people who have discovered the same, basically trying to run a MV amp as if it was a non-MV amp.
Personally, my favourite is....and this has happened all my life......people will say...."F*** you play LOUD !!".......to which i reply......"Yes".
For most people who are rather less wreckless, The disableable(?) MV is no doubt the best compromise. But please consider the possibility of having various sized amps without any MV to avoid that thinning of tone. Also consider, particularly when using EL84 power valves, switching from 4 to 2 valves, and then the use of switchable triode/pentode operation.
Also please understand that this is....opinion...(albeit highly opinionated but educated and experienced opinion) tempered with a great deal of dark humour as well as fact.....then....get REAL good so that you can play at the volume that suits you and never be questioned........at this point, timing and taste also become a huge issue.....
hmmm....a bit philosophical perhaps, but many hours at the workbench has to be for specific reasons beyond just saving $$$$$....have a target and work towards it......MV was designed as a compromise in the first place (so we could try to sound like Clapton in Cream with our huge Marshalls at rehearsal or in some tiny club as opposed to the huge venues he worked)..............get good so you don't have to compromise.......and get a little amp.....
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Lumbering dinosaur....what's a master volume?
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NO MORE MV for me thanx. I build this particular amp for a friend, so he ultimately has the final choices,to MV or not to MV.