Yes. Monitors are for mixing/mastering. You don't typically track in the same room with them on because A) they'll bleed into a live mic, and B) it's silly.
Back off of what? Your monitoring should have nothing to do with your recording levels. Shut the monitors off, set the recording level, then turn them back on if you have to. The feedback from the mic in your monitors is not an indication of anything other than your monitors are too loud and/or too close to your mic.
Put the amp in another room. This is just another thing that is confusing your recording level with your monitoring level. Attempting to get a sound out of your amp is a separate process from setting the recording level, which is a separate process from monitoring your mix while you overdub.
How far away do you have the mic from the amp? It really should be right on the cabinet.
This is true. I treated myself to a £10 pair at the start of the year with money that my Ma in law gave me but everyone else tracks with £5 phones, as do I when I'm tracking downstairs. As long as you can hear what you're tracking to, pristine may as well be 16.
+1 on those construction mufflers. They are fantastic at cutting out the outside sounds. I swim with a pair. My MP3 player earbuds would slip out of my ears on occasion in the water so I got a set of those construction ear thingies, mainly to stop them falling out actually. But it also improved the sound of the music I'm listening to and reinforces the bass which was an unexpected bonus. And I can't hear a thing outside unless I turn the music down {which I don't}. Mind you, when I'm walking back to the changing room, I can hear a deep bass version of my footsteps in my flip flops on the floor, like it's conducting through my jaw and cheek bones. It sounds creepy.
