Long Time No See, and Advice Needed

[Matt]

Well, its been a very long time since i posted...um..about 7 months and theres so much to catch up on that it will takes weeks to sift through. But anyhow, I've come to a predicament regarding my AD50: It simply ain't loud enough. I know I had this conversation with several of you before, and you managed to convice me it is, and it was...but then I joined a new band, in which even with everything on max, I can barely be heard, thanks to an overly enthusiastic drummer. Another problem is, although the tone itself is extremely sweet at this volume (I simply love it, when I can hear myself), the bass gets a bit loose on the heavier distortion channels, and feedback is becoming irksome to say the least (I should be able to eq it out however).

So I came to the following conclusions:

Buy a new amp. I would probably bite the bullet and get a full valve amp, but its going to take a while to get the funds, which doesnt help my immediate problem

or

I run it through an extension cab. The problem with this is, I would have to lug a cab around with me, and it might not make a huge amount of difference to the volume. Has anyone done this to great effect?

or

Ask the drummer nicely to calm down and stop making me partially deaf after each session. Unfortunately he gets rather annoyed when you ask him this and says 'I don't tell you how to play guitar'. He plays 'butt end' so to speak with his sticks, and practically worships Neil Peart. And he wonders why he has tintous...

So chaps, what do I do? The immediate fix would be the extenstion cab, but as I have gigs coming up, surely more power from a new amp would be better?

pip pip

Matt

p.s. ooh, I manged to wangle myself a new guitar: an epi dot. Sure looks swish. Too bad its so muddy