Thanks for the replies.

Why is it that a Champ is cleaner than a 5E3, when it only has a SE 6V6 power section, and a 12AX7 front end tube?

Wouldn't this mean it should be the opposite?

I've been considering getting another amp from Nik. I bought an 18W EF86 last year, and I'm looking to suppliment it with a clean "Fender" style amp.

What I'm looking for is an amp that has a lot of clean headroom, but low volume. I know that sounds a little contradictory, but I basically only need an amp that's loud enough to record, or mic up for playing live, which is not much volume at all.

The 5E3 is reputed to have very little clean headroom, but still has a 20 watt power section, which I feel should be pretty loud, should it not?

Would it be possible to use very low gain pre amp tubes (12ay7 - 12at7 etc - any suggestions?) to maximise the clean headroom, at the expense of volume and compression, which I don't really need?

Would this result in an amp that sounded clean, and not too loud? In my experience, using clean Fender amps with 6L6 power tubes sound awesome, but the volume is ridiculous. I'm basically looking for that same tone, at 1/10th the volume. What are my options here?

Does anyone know of a way to reduce the amount of gain in the 18W TMB EF86 amp. I recently got one from Nik, and as awesome as the amp is, it has a lot more pre-amp gain than I had anticipated. I read on the forum that one could replace the 12ax7's with 5751's to reduce the pre gain.

I'm basically trying to make the amp a little more versatile, and to get a cleaner, less compressed sound out of it. I'll be using the amp mostly for studio recording, (I'm a recording engineer/producer) and so I don't need much volume out of the amp, but I do need a little more control over the gain. Will changing the pre-amp tubes make the amp a little brighter on the TBM side?

Could someone shed some light on which tube is which in the layout.