Doug, I'd love to hear such a clip. From you or Kirk. Don't worry, I won't judge your playing if you tell me not to. I can listen to it completely as an amp sample, if you want. Does it have as much character as this:
Guitar amps by Hughes&Kettner - Products
So far as I can tell, the Hotrod doesn't seem as mellow or rocky as this one, or the even the Blues Jnr. I understand you'd be biased (no pun intended). The store I usually go to promotes the HotRod full on, but no one seems to want to demo these things for you. Maybe they're afraid of using up the tubes? Still, you'd think if they wanted to sell one that they'd let you see how good it sounded. One guy did demo it for me one day (and got told off by his boss for doing so), but that's when I gained the impression it was a bit plain.
So yeah, if you can get a cool sound out of it, please share!
Wonder how Thunderforge is going.