I use the volume knob on my guitars all the time to control the sound of the guitar. I love amps that clean up with the volume throttled back and open up with the gain increased. The Plexi's, Tucana, and Dweezil's Bman are current favorites. I almost never crank the guitar volume to 11.
When setting up a preset, I find that setting the amp drive at 5 is a good starting point, then I tweak tone to taste, and then dial the amp gain back (or up) to get the lead tone I want. I sometimes add a drive pedal or two, but usually with the pedal mix at 50% or lower. Once I get that dialed in, I go back to the amp with the pedals off, and roll back the guitar volume, usually to 5. I then fine tune the sound of the amp. Then I dial the guitar volume back to 3 and repeat the fine tuning for the clean sound. Once I get that where I want it, I open the guitar volume back up to hear the rig throttled up, and tweak that (if needed). I then save the preset with S for single coils or H for humbuckers in the preset title so I know what they are in AX8 Edit..
When performing, I just use the guitar volume to control my sound. For most presets, I get a great clean tone, mid-grind, and full on with just adjusting the guitar volume. I have played entire performances with just one preset. I am old school, so I learned how to play back in the days when guitarists used an amp and a guitar, and maybe a pedal. Sound was controlled with the guitar volume. I still play that way. When my students first start taking lessons, they are often surprised at how simple my rig is.
