I got fed up after a gig recently, with hauling gear. So I got one of these little Crate V58's. 5 watt tube combo with a Celestion 8" speaker, 1 12AX7 and 1 EL84 (Groove Tubes). I'd played the Palomino version about 1½ years ago and liked it but was in my full stack phase.
It has Gain, Tone and Volume. Also a Line Out with a mono cord which doubles as an effects loop if you use a stereo cord. (Or a Power Amp In if you stick a mono cord in part way..). The gain isn't too bad, muddy for my tastes. I keep it at about noon. It seems to engage the SS distortion around 1 or 2 o' clock. Tone knob is different in that the more clockwise you turn it, the more scooped it becomes. CCW and it increases the mids. Fully CCW it acts like a real Tone control, you know that muffled sound. I leave it around 9:00.
I tried it at rehearsal recently and it kept up nicely. Really barks. Nothing in the thump department but can be heard. Being that I am miked every gig this is not a problem. Another trick with this amp is to put an EQ or Micro Amp type device in the FX loop to drive the power amp harder, for more volume. Because I've read the way it's designed that the preamp isn't pushing it that hard.
Oh, and I use a TS type pedal to clean boost it into more overdrive. I have it on "9", and it crunches nicely but I need some variety, so I get even more with a clean boost.
Even though it has a Celestion speaker the breakup doesn't sound as British as I'd like. Almost sounds "american" to me.
I have tried one of those Epiphone 5 watt heads and did not like it. This sounds better to me.