Yep! Those things had authority! They sounded awesome as well! It was like riding a wild horse! Saddle up... things are about to get crazy!
I miss the old HCAF days.
I think they're actually hiring a bunch of programmers and going the modeling route. The JMD 2!!!!! It's bluetooth capable with a built in tuner! 4 variations of 4 shitty effects with a 150 watt EL34 power section.
www.dougstubes.com is great too, but I don't know if he has any matched sextets. You can always email him as well. You will want "average distortion" power tubes from him. Those will fall within the Mesa specifications which is pretty much what most manufacturers install into their amps.
Here are my answers:
Cleans: Anything made by John Suhr that has OD100 or PT100 on it.
Old School Dirty: Tweed Bandmaster or Clark Tyger
Glass Breaking Awesomeness: 12000 Series Plexi or George's new MetroPlex
Thick authoritative: Marshall 2203 w/ lots of volume
Best Metal: Marshall...
You're not too far all over the map. A good Marshall and some boost pedals could cover a lot of that. I know you mentioned digital modeling which isn't a bad way to start. Like someone else said earlier, you can figure out what you would probably like by playing the models, and you could move...