The Fender BDRI is a notoriously finicky amp, speaking as an owner/operator. That said, it should be pretty much a "Set it and forget it" amp as well - once you get the clean channel volume and tone dialed in, the rest of your changes should come from the instrument and your effects chain.

Guitar interacts with some effects differently when you roll the volume off - drive/fuzz pedals might clean up, for example. It can be handy for quick changes, like a quiet/loud/quiet series.

I think the key to success here is going to be working to find a relatively even volume among his drive pedals. Some volume difference is just fine - I tend to set a slightly louder OD for lead work.

One other thing you can look into is modifying the BDRI to get more usable volume - dropping a lower gain tube into the first position (v1) can help - I put a 12AT7 into mine and there is a bit more usable ground on the volume knobs.