Carl, I took your advice and played the amp again today with bass off and using body for thickness. The result? VM is now mine and a brand new one still in the box- just the way you like them!
I guess you can say your clips do sell amps.....I think the tones you're getting on the clips are better than Guthrie's Hellcat clips.
FWIW, there was a Hellcat I was gonna bid on ebay yesterday-it went for 1750! But I decided to go with VM instead. Thanks Carl.