Not too much to know. Don't leave it in the cold and then take it inside and fire it up right away. Let it get used to it's environment first! Tubes will cause condensation that can adversely affect your amp.

As far as the tubes go... Owning a studio means I don't push ANYTHING to the limit. I change ALL my tubes on ALL my tube gear every year. (Amps, pres, compressors, mics, emulators, anything with a tube gets a new tube every year.) We do this because if something craps out in the middle of a session, we'll be wasting an hour or more searching for the issue and changing tubes. Not good during a session where the client has limited time.

Tubes usually last much longer than a year, but we can't take the chance like you can. You'll notice changes or sounds that just aren't right. This won't keep you from playing, but will be an indicator that it's time to change the tubes. There's a lot of info about this on the net, so just do some searches. The most common tube problem is a tube becoming "microphonic." This means that the tube appears to start picking up other sounds. This is due to vibration and can be checked by lightly tapping the tube with the eraser end of a pencil. If you hear the tapping, time to change the tube.

I've gone a long time without actively playing. Through my younger days, I fed my toys through a mid-sixties Fender amp with those four huge-mongous Jensens in it. I love the sound -- but the thing is so HEAVY !!

The pals at the corner music store sent me home for a weekend with a PV Classic 30. I was immediately in lust.

I use two guitars; now playing again in a worship-music environment (a bit of a change since the jazz-fusion days of my youth) -- a 64 Strat/Rosewood and a big-fat Yamaha Hollow-Body (early 80's L5 copy). Both guitars sound great through this little thing! I am still getting used to playing with it ... but it is so much richer than any solid-state boxes on the shelf.

I appreciate the feedback on the settings Mr. Cox.

I feel like a kid-in-the-candy-store playing with the dirty channel on this thing. I've never played with distortion in my life ... and sometimes I look-down at that little-amp and think --- "Who is making this sound that's coming-out of my amp?" The Fender stayed clean until my eardrums hurt and I've never used any 'boxes' except a Wah and an old MXR Phase90.

I made a couple of mods to my PV. When I first got it it made a terrible sound when you'd play any A in the fifth-position. I actually Googled the problem and found this guy who makes a tube-holder that uses springs to hold-down the tubes. It keeps them from vibrating and slipping. About $40. The other thing I bought was an aluminum cage that goes across the back to protect the tubes during transport. Again, about $40 bucks. Both mods were self-installable and the spring-thing is amazing at how it cleaned-up that terrible tone in the middle of the neck.

Now, I must start playing with toys. Overdrive, echo, cab models and such. Those darn toys are expensive!!