Here's a question I'm surprised I haven't asked sooner. What volume do you practice at in relation to performance volume? I don't have the luxury of playing at full concert volume very often, but I'm worried my sense of dynamics is hindered by this. How do you get around this? Headphones?

Obviously when show time comes near become accustomed to playing as close to live conditions as possible.

Headphones most of the time. If I practice through my amps, dogs (and my employees, during the day) can hear it, even at low volume, and in the evening this can make our overnight guest dogs bark-y.

I practice with my full rig at a lower, but reasonable, volume. I built my office and put in sound-deadened walls. Sometimes, when I'm home alone, I'll crank it up loud. Playing at a performance volume is very different than low volume. It's something that seems to need some practice. My family is used to music practice. My daughter plays drums, bass, and viola. Her practice can be heard everywhere too and we all have gotten used to it.

-Eric

Most of the time I will use the Roland CM-30 powered monitor/Alesis Nanoverb on an ear-level stand that I had at the Lap Dawg display at FHA last week. Depending on what's happening around the house it could be at a rather low volume or cranked quite a bit to fill the room. It also has a headphone option for late night shedding. I also have an Alesis SR-16 drum machine going thru the Roland for playing to a groove. If I was actively gigging it would be imperative that I also be totally familiar & comfortable with my stage rig - whatever that turned out to be - at gig volumes. Right now I'm at the stage of carving out a mental map of the fretboard and how to freely navigate it. All that requires is an excellent full bodied tone with a little reverb in mono at a moderate volume. But you're correct - shedding and gigging are 2 different things.

Remember to take care of your ears. There are handy apps which display decibel levels.

Headphones all the time and at a reasonable volume. With nice effects it gives the impressions of a big stage.

I practice 75% of the time unplugged….

I don't think you can know in advance what live performance volume will be. It depends on the purpose (recording or live?), genre and venue. If you can hear yourself well, I think you can hear your dynamics well.

I use my "production" rig at low volume when I practice alone. When I practice with the band, we are at high volume and I wear earplugs and suffer through it. Frankly, I can't really hear what I'm doing when I'm loud and trying to keep up with the damn drummer and guitarists. Low volume solo allows me to hear the details of my crappy playing.

I use headphones at times but I hate them because they have a very hard time reproducing the Stick low end so D below bass E and Db below bass E sound the same to my middle aged ears.

Unplugged is interesting. I can't hear hardly anything unplugged. The unplugged Stick is so much quieter than the unplugged electric guitar.

I have a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones. Not only do they do a nice job of filtering out a lot of unwanted noise leaking through (but not all kinds of noise), and their frequency response is fantastic. I hear every note distinctly, even the very lowest. I actually prefer to practice with them on because it sounds so good. And I can practice at an extremely sane volume.
As Ferris Bueller said: "If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."

I practice through a version of a performance rig, loud enough to hear the technique. If I play too quietly, I will miss hearing string noise, extraneous ringing and the like. I don't worry too much about hearing dynamics, as I am confident I can get loud and soft in any environment. I do consider that if I have the volume too low, I may be hitting the strings too hard to try to get louder.