I play Mark's "clawhammer" fingerstyle and have a Les Paul R8, but don't have any amps.
I like Mark's solo career more than his Dire Straits era, and seek a sound close to that. Think about songs like "Speedway at Nazareth", "I dug up a diamond", "Song for Sonny Liston", etc.
To my knowing, Mark usually plays his Les Pauls with a Reinhardt Talyn, Talon or Commet, which are based around Marshall JTM and JCM.
I play for my leasure and seek a tube amp with an appropriate apartment volume, which can also sound good quiet. Here are some amps I thought about:
Marshall Astoria - Can go to 5w and reduce volume with the looper level. Has bass and treble boost for low volumes. Sounds like a mix of vintage and modern Marshall amps.
Marshall SV20/ SC20 - can go to 5w. Should be somewhere in the ballpark of Mark's amps.
Victory Sheriff/Duchess - should be voiced around Marshall, and have a super low wattage settings.
Morgan mvp23 - can to down up to 0.25w. A mix of British and American voicing. Not sure it'll get dirty enough.
Friedman Pink Taco/ Friedman Dirty Shirley - I liked their sound, but afraid the 20w will be too much.
Fender Bassbreaker 15 - sounds marshall-ish, and good at low volumes.
Mesa Boogie California - no Marshall voicing, but I liked its sound. It can also be reduced to 2w.
I wonder which of those you find mostly approprite for the task?
As for pedals - do I need one? I always had the impression that Mark is being plugged directly into the amp (volume pedal not included), without any overdrive/distortions. I read somewhere that Mark used a HotCake not extensivly.
P.S
Since I seek a relatively low volume, I wonfer if a clean fender amp + several stacked dirt pedals (like a Warthog with a Tube Screamer) will give me a similar results.