I understand what you're saying and I did play with an underwood for years (and even got a sound people really liked) but I find myself in small string ensembles now and that is where I thrive. There is nothing as thrilling as playing near-acoustic music all the time. The best gig I ever played was in the "Royal Concertgebouw" in Amsterdam with no mics but the overheads in the hall and it was bliss! I think there were about 500 people there. Mind you, my idea of a great gig is not based on anything but the music played. I find like-minded musicians but, I admit, sometimes it takes awhile. In the meantime I either take the loud gigs and hate it or I just don't and I go paint an apartment instead. It's my choice and sometimes I'd rather do a little side-work than play a gig that's going to rattle my little dream world of music. Cats that play every night with different bands need to deal and I completely respect that. In those cases I think I would get a David Gage to go with my AMT and blend them the best I could. I've had good loud gigs before but even then, they didn't seem loud because everyone was so on top of blending properly. In the short time I've played music I've found that, for me, the very best music was played when we were playing at our quietest. Interesting.
