hmmm, thats weird how the volume dont work on the dirty channel, never heard of that before. anyway ill suggest to you what i suggest to all my students, crate makes a decent practice amp and usually when your talking about 15 watt amps or a little bigger there aint much difference in them regardless of name, maybe some cost a little more than others. i would also look at the cheap marshals as ive played through a few and they bark pretty darn good, and all these amps ive listed the volume works for both channels. one more thing that might help you out and save you a few bucks just get a distortion pedal as then you can run it into the clean channel and use the volume after all and it might be cheaper for you.and with some of the new multi effects pedals on the market today you will get much more than distortion, chorus flange delay reverb phase and pitch shifting along with many distortion choices come standard in the zoom 606 and it comes with a exspresion pedal a well. its not gonna make you happy forever but ill tell you it will open alot of options for you with sounds. i think they sell for like 70 bucks or a little more on http://www.musiciansfriend.com anyway good luck and if you have any questions feel free to email me at flash2ace@yahoo.com