Well, I think we've learned a few things :
1 : everybody has his/her own tastes when it comes to tones.
2. That Salvation cares about making the customer happy.
3. That stock modules, like the Blackface, do indeed have some good tones in them...according to some people (I'm included in this group).
This talk about useless or bad tubes is pretty ridiculous. Bogner, and this was confirmed by Charlie at Bogner, recommends using cheap chinese tubes in all pre-amp positions in my Ecstasy. Who in the world would put a cheap $8 tube in a $3000+ amp? ME..the guy who thinks this mother sounds wicked that way. But don't take my word for it...go ask the best guitarists in the world (Vai, Satch, and others) who've used the Ecstasy if these chinese tubes are the right choice.
In my SLO100...another $3000+ amp...the best tube for me is a JJ in V1. It smoothed out and rounded out the tone on the OD nicely. I tried a "high end" Tung Sol and it sucked major balls (my opinion)...made the amp sound VERY brittle. JJ's worked best for me...better then Tung Sol, RFT, Tungsram, EH, JAN, and others.
Call me crazy, but am I the only one who's noticed that nobody (as far as I know) has asked for a module that will make them sound like Vai or Satriani? And yet, these 2 guys are probably the most revered guitarists in the world. Maybe this idea of "my tone is better than your tone" really doesn't mean much when it comes down to making great music.