Yeah the EHX have a lifeless dry tone about them, you should check out the SED Winged C's. SED is basically the original Svetlana company, another company bought out the name in the U.S., so Svetlana changed their name to SED for the U.S. market. They're the best of all the Russian made tubes. But when I get the money I'm gonna be on the hunt for some NOS Groove Tube 6l6ge's. You should check out these articles: http://www.legendarytones.com/groovetubes.html
http://www.watfordvalves.com/cgi-bin/do ... ort_44.pdf
The tone I dream about is shimmery and warm at the same time. It's an odd balance, having the right amount of brightness and harmonics and the same amount of bass and warmth.
I played a mint condition Pre-CBS Blackface Twin today at guitar center, it is THE clean tone. It was the clean tone I hear in my head, and I could actually crank it a lot more than my reissue without my ears bleeding, it's not nearly as harsh at high volumes. They also had a reissue 65 twin right next to it, I played them both just to make sure it wasn't all in my head, and it was clear which one sounded better. I'll admit the reissue was quite a lot louder, but it was soo harsh in the high end, and the bass was cold, it didn't have nearly the amount of depth.
I didn't bother to look at the tubes, but that probably wasn't the primary source of its mojo. But with that in mind, it probably had original 1960s Groove Tubes in them. I've seen some NOS Groove Tubes from the 60s go for upwards of $100.
