Lee and I both run the JJ brand tubes. Best in the world. We each have a head with EL34's and with 6L6's. On the new record we used the el34 head with a Presonus parametric EQ. Other than that I use a gate to shut up the EQ, which I run in front of the input, not in the loop. Crunch channel for everything but clean stuff, I don't use the ultra. One thing you may not know about the XXX is when you plug in the footswitch ther loop acts as a boost even with nothing connected to it. That's how I boost my shit, you just set the send and return where you want them, activate the loop and instant boost. Without the footswitch , the send and returns are still active, you can get more volume by turning them up. But the more you crank them, the tone gets a bit brighter, so don't go crazy. Set 'em at about two o'clock and it's all good.
was playing with them. 
