When I had a 94 Recto back in 94, I put a quad of Tesla ( not JJ ) EL34's in in and never put 6L6's in that amp again. The Teslas sounded great in that amp.
Bob is a cool guy, I called him about ten tears ago. He had just got home from work, he worked at IBM if memory serves. I talked to him about 30 minutes. He told me he was taking a break on amps, that it was too cut throat. He had worked at Richenbacher and Fender and designed amps for both...
I owned two Blackmores, rehearsed and gigged with them, even had one stolen and returned by Travis County PD, and never had a problem with either one of them.
Tubby bottom end, less gain than a Tweed Fender Bassman... Hence the name "Sound Shitty". Getting it modded is probably the best thing you could do to it.
See, the thing that sticks with me is, I met Mike Soldano this summer, very nice guy, very forthcoming. I specifically asked him about Jet City amps, he said they sound close to the Hot rods, but not the same due to the transformers, he said the iron in China is not the same as it is here in the...