its pretty great for what i play, blues and some alternative sorta rock. with a pedal or two it can even do some metal, but it might not be heavy enough for most metal-heads. overall its got a very smooth, creamy overdrive tone, when you max the volume and tone it starts getting a BIT harsh. if you're gonna play clean with this amp it might not be the best idea though, 4 watts might not be enough headroom for some. i don't have a strat, but i have heard many people saying how well single coils match with the amp.

its pretty loud but i would suggest to use it in enclosed areas. i bring it for band practice here at a pal's garage and set it to the 1 watt setting with the volume and tone maxed, then stack on my OD-1 setting on my boss and step on the compressor for solos. with the volume and tone maxed out its already in heavy overdrive (not distortion) mode, then adding on the boss OD it kind of thickens the sound and adds more oomph to it, a nice boutique analog overdrive pedal would be nice, but this works pretty well for me!

in an enclosed area its loud enough to play with drums but i've tried maxing the volume on my amp in a more open-spaced room at the 4 watt setting and it can't keep up with the drums. i would actually say my 15 watt line 6 amp is louder than the vox ac4tv, but is definitely no match in terms of tone.

so for rock and blues (and some cleans) this amp is perfect. but if you want something with more crunch, i think the orange tiny terror beats this hands down, though the price is isn't too pretty and i've only heard clips of it on youtube

depends on how big your room is and what you're going to play.. keep in mind that these babies don't have master volume knobs, so if you want clean you gotta play soft, and if you want hard out overdrive you have to max the volume! it can get quite loud, but of course its not overpowering, and as long as you close the doors and windows it should be quite soft to others in the house, but try it for yourself to be sure. and the 8 inch speaker won't be as loud.

u can always check the website and see that theres no gain.

anyway i wanna check out the ac4tv mini, but looks like ck doesnt carry them yet.

adding a boss ds-1 just defeats the purpose of getting a small tube amp.
like that better save money and get marshall mg10 or something cheaper.