I did all these demos where my guitar just sounds amazing (in context for what I'm doing) and how did I achieve this?  Purely by accident.  I just plugged my guitar directly into my computer and recorded it in the red.  Now, I did add compression to it and a little EQ but that's it.

So I went out and got a 1978 peavey series 260H thinking it would sound similar, being that it draws it's gain from turning up the input sensitivity, but while I love it and it sounds great, the sound just ain't the same.

I am not using a compressor with it, would that help?  All I know is tube amps.  I don't wanna go there.  Theres gotta be something like just using a power amp or a processor or something that will sound rude and nasty and kind of "honky" like in my demos, any suggestions?  heres a sample https://soundcloud.com/chord-caveman/the-golden-age-of-planned-2

PS:  WHAT I AM TRYING TO DO IS REPLICATE THIS TONE IN A LIVE SETTING.  I WASN'T CLEAR ABOUT THAT.

I just scored a sweet Peavey Standard 260H Head with a master volume and reverb and I'm looking to run it at 8ohms to produce 85W RMS.  I understand it could peak up to twice that in some instances.  I'm about to pick up an Avitar 2x12 Cabinet with 2 60W Celestion Vintage 30's in it, and really need to know if I have anything to worry about.  Heres the info on the amp http://www.peavey.com/assets/literature/manuals/standard.pdf

Not that I will, but if I were to just max that master volume running at 85W RMS, should I be sweating it?  I also posted this question on another forum, but I'm getting conflicting insight as to what may happen.

Thanks.