I have a peavey classic 50 which I think is fairly similar to the fender hot rod amps. I agree with tele about getting a better speaker. the speakers on these amps just don't allow the chunkyness you (and myself) desire. I haven't changed my speakers yet, so i can't give you much help on that, except that you might want to check out weber speakers. As for settings. I have the ovedrive channels volume maxed and the gain on aorund 10 (goes to 12) and the master volume to taste. (note: all knobs go to 12) presance 9-10, bass 5-7, mid 6-9, trebel 7-10. Those settings give me about all the chunk the amp and speakers are capable of. A really hot bridge pickup would help too. One more thing I would like to point out is that your overall sound will sound much heavier and chunky when playing with a full band, so it's not alway's necessary to try to get the heaviest high gain sound while playing alone. Hope some of this helps you out :o