The players who get awesome sounds are the ones who know their gear inside out from spending so much time with it. The great thing about a [u]good[/u] small amp like your Pignose, is that you can crank it up to get that ballsy sound wherever you practice. When you need to make it louder, you can mic it into your PA mix, or run DI. And the money you save by not buying a bigger amp (that you can't really use), you can spend later for a monster PA amp and mixer that you can build a band around.

You don't get distracted by trying to sort out which amp settings work best in each venu. You can use the same settings everywhere!

I know a big Marshall, or Fender, or Mesa looks like [u]thee[/u] thing to have when you're 14 and ready to take on the world. The truth seems less exciting, but the [u]music[/u]'s the real thing, not how big or flashy your gear is.

Read through this stuff http://www.guitartricks.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=2086 and take some time to think it through.