Volume/Mic/Amp

Hi, J - somehow I missed your question - sorry for the late response.Instead of a low output mic, you might try a "pad" like the Lone Wolf Blues Co "Mojo Pad" or "Mojo Pad Deluxe". This will let you turn the amp up higher and PERHAPS get more power amp distortion without as much volume. However most amp breakup comes from preamp breakup, which comes from overdriving the preamp with a hot signal - that means you playing a good mic with a strong signal. There's a lot of technique involved too - you get much more "crunch" when you play chords and use tongue block technique to accent the beginning of notes will pull-slaps and the end of notes with pulls. 

Most amps do NOT break up until they're fairly loud. If you want to hear that sound without disturbing the wife, the dog, the neighbors.... a better way (but more expensive) is to run the hot mic, run the amp loud, and divert some of the amp's ouptut away from the speaker into a load that doesn't make any sound. (Note that the amp MUST see a load that can absorb the same power, or you can damage the amp.) That's what a "power attenuator" like the Weber MicroMASS 15-Watt Attenuator is for. If you understand impedance and basic electrical math, you can build one yourself. Create a "voltage divider network" with an 8 or 10 ohm resistor and a 1 ohm resistor in series to ground. Wire the speaker across the 1 ohm resistor. About 85% of the amp's power will be absorbed by the 8 ohm resistor. These must be "power resistors" capable of dissipating your amp's output power - i.e., for a 50W amp, you must use a resistor that can dissipate 50W (and, for both safety sake and to avoid burning yourself on what will become a very hot resistor, you should use a 100W resistors or more.)

Cheers