Shiva EL34 silver chassis vs newer Green Chassis

I have played 3 different Shivas, a combo el34 Silver chassis, a EL34 silver chassis head and a 20th anniversary head KT88. I didn't love the tone of the combo but it sounded huge (bigger than a 4x12 with a 100 watt head). I liked the 20th anniversary head but I don't need that much gain and I really wasn't impressed with the clean tones. The EL34 head I played sounded great but really beat up and need some work to fix a broken treble knob and probably some other work if I took it to a tech for a check and clean.

So, I know I want a Shiva and I think I prefer the EL34 better but is a brand new green chassis going to sound as good as the old silver one I played.

I will be using this for a cover band that does mostly rock to heavy rock songs (led zep to GNR to Weezer).

Do I go with a used Silver Chassis that possibly has a warmer clean and better gain or a newer one?

I had a silver 2002 shiva el34
comparing side by side with a newer green chassis and also the 20th anniversary with el34's, what I could tell is that it did sound quite close to the green chassis, but it sounded punchier and less compressed, with a faster picking response and slightly better headroom
the green one was the smoothest of the bunch and the anniversary was way too aggressive for my tastes
the loop on the silver one sucks, though

^ Agreed, so if you are going to use effects in the loop you want the Green one..

I have a 2004 silver chassis Shiva (EL34 w/verb) and the loop works great providing you have the correct ducking cable which I had Lava make me, one for pedals and one for rack gear, and the loop sounds great as it should. I haven't played a green chassis Shiva so unfortuantely I can't compare but I can tell you the silver chassis build is night and day difference from the green chassis in that the pots are all chassis mounted with flying leads where the green chassis models are PCB mtd, just look at some gut shots and you can tell the silver chassis models were just built better before cost cutting production techniques went into effect over at Bogner.