I have to admit, I'm not the best at sitting for perhaps hours and running every possible combination of tone, volume, and gain settings. And, after getting the LSS and having it reveal some things, I really think I have to get a better understanding of volume and tone settings on the guitar. I did actually take the time to read the owner's manual, which addressed the controls for Drive and Gain.
In a nutshell, they seem to think that the gain should normally be set higher than the drive level. They suggested setting the gain somewhere around 2:00 to 3:00 and then experiment with increasing levels of Drive.
Again, the thing that is so great about a quality piece of equipment is, especially where Mesa is concerned...the amp is going to perform very well inside it's intended build characteristics...and in my opinion, the LSS is all about getting the type of sound that is just 'furry' enough to have a little attitude, but you still can distinguish intonation to a large degree, and for me the best part is that you don't have to blast out the windows to get it there.
Based on some of my tweaking the knobs, you can get a pretty distorted sound out of the LSS, but I would be pretty sure that it would not be what amps designed to target that sound can deliver.
For the first time maybe ever, it is pretty cool to think I have an amp that will eventually allow for a sound that I like that is not some copy-cat of someone else.
Anyhow, good luck in getting your sound dailed in.