I'm sorry, I had the EL84 and the EL34 mixed up. I was actually talking about the EL34's. The amp had a bias switch that lets you switch between 6L6's and EL34's. What are the different tone characteristics of the EL34's as aposed to the 6L6's? I'm glad you mentioned the bit about the master volume and channel volume. I will defanately try turning the channel vol. down and the master up. If nothing else, I have a PODxt that I might try putting in front of the amp and setting it to bypass any amp modeling and just use the effects. Possibly using the tube screamer setting to get that bluesy sound I'm looking for and the classic dist.(rat) setting for the more rock crunch. btw...which pre-amp tubes will give me a warmer and and not so crisp high gain sound? On the ultra(higher gain channel) I only have the gain at 10 or 11 o'clock. So I still have alot of gain to play with if I choose lower gain tubes (if that's how it works). This is the first all tube amp I've owned, besides a '65? gibson GA-5 Skylark that doesn't work...lol. I really need to have it overhauled. I've heard it's got some great tones. So, I'm pretty new to all the tube stuff. Also, does anybody have any experience with a Peavey classic 30? I want to get a 1x12" combo amp, and want all tube. The 3 amps I'm looking at are the peavey classic 30, a fender hot rod delux, and a traynor ycv40. Thanks for all the great help!