usually I am playing in a bedroom, I live in chicago in an apartment complex. I can't play loud because I will piss off neighbors in the city. typically i play at low volumes on my Ampeg ss70, volume knob is at 2 or 3 usually, and i put my gain knob on 10. I always get the sense that i wouldn't mind more distortion, and feel like i just want more. maybe I am just playing this thing too quietly to truly let the tone come out?

Is the amount of gain I get affected by the volume? If I start playing this thing on volume knob at 6-8, will my tone get a lot more distorted and maybe, better?

One of these days I am going to move to the burbs, get myself a basement and turn this fucker up and shake the house. one of these days.

Thanks.

i have the ss140, and it doesn't sound good until the volume is up around 5 (really fucking loud). it's just not a good bedroom amp at all.

what i do for bedroom practice is run the preamp out into my computer and then use software modeling to shape the tone, and just play out of my computer monitor speakers. if your amp has the 'balanced out' xlr jack, it will have more gain.

you could also use the preamp out in conjunction with modeling hardware, like a pod or v-amp. or go from the preamp to a secondary poweramp and then back into the ampeg, so you can have more control over the master volume.

or you could just trade the ampeg for a smaller/modern combo that sounds good at low volume.

It will sound better at a louder volume. I have the older ss140c and while it sounds okay at low volumes it really comes alive around 4 or 5. The tone of these things is a little thin and if yours is an older ss70 it should have plenty of gain. I run a bass EQ pedal with mine that just sits on top of the amp. The bass EQ gives me a little more control over the tone at the lower end and gives the amp more punch! At higher volumes it really sounds awesome! Nice and crunchy but crsip and clear and nice thump too. I keep the gain around 8 or 9 as opposed to 11. any higher and it starts to sound a little too fuzzy for me. I've been using this amp for nearly 20 years both for gigs and pratice and I have no intention of parting with it anytime soon.

To answer your question; volume can effect the sound of your amp but it doesn't really effect the gain itself. It can seem that way as higher volums will tend to break the speaker up more which is how we all came to love distortion in the first place!