First, let me say that those clips are perfect for conveying what you want. I'll try to answer some of your answers, but might not be able to get all of them. Also, this is coming from someone who owns a HRM 50, not Bluesmaster, but I don't really think in the grand scheme of things, it's a big difference.

The speaker issue. I have a 2X12 cab with a WGS ET-65 & Veteran 30. I chose that combo because I too was a little concerned about the ET-65 being too dark. While the two paired together is superb, I really don't think the ET-65 is too dark at all. It does have great bass response, but the top end is really nice. If I had to just use one of those speakers the ET-65 would be it. Now you bring up a EVM12L which is a sort of a whole new ball game. Up until recently, I have never played though one of these speakers, but got a chance the other day. While I still love the combo I have that speaker was really something to play. The efficency is really suited for a 1X12 setup and it has a clearness with just the right compression that really is suited for these amps. Your talking a different price range with the EV so that's something to consider.

As far as getting JM tone, I really think the amp your going for will get you what you're after. While I don't really ever try to sound like JM and don't listen to his music on a regular basis, everytime I hear clips like the ones above I hear my amp all over. In some ways, while Larry Carlton's tone can be considered classic D-style, JM's is classic D-style of a different sort. I think the HRM aspect is probably a part of it, along with the cleans being more blackface fender.

As far as tubes, if you know how to bias the amp I would get it with no tubes and choose something other than JJ's. But if you don't than letting Nik get it all setup with the tubes and then send it to you would probably be best.

I feel for your nervousness. It's about exactly a year ago I was going over and over which of Niks kits/amps to get. Don't sweat it too much it will be great.

So with all the mods that Nik is going to do does he think the BM will get you what you want?

I guess to simplify my opinion I should just state why I went with the HRM50 and not a regular OTS or BM. The main reason is I wanted to get as much OD gain as possible without going overboard. The fact that the HRM had a tonestack for the OD vs. the OTS seemed like what I would need because much of my playing is with OD.(although since getting the amp, it has opened up a whole new spectrum of clean playing) At the time with what little there was about the BM I did keep reading people elluding to not being able to get exactly the best OD with them. That sort of scared me and I didn't want bad OD. But like I said I was going on a few opinions that could have been accurate or not. Since then things I have read makes me think my fear was mostly unfounded.

All this was predicated on the fact that I have an electronics background and built the amp and knew I could change anything I didn't like. So I figured starting with a HRM would be a right fit. I think with all the mods you should have a huge pallete to choose from. I guess the thing to find out is Niks opinion on how much different the OD is on the BM from the regular HRM. I understand wanting to get it right the first time.

Also, it took some time to draw all the tone out of the amp. When I first fired it up, it sounded good and I could tell I had something special, but it took a good month or two to really start to squeeze out all the juice. In fact I'm still getting new flavors. I had modded a crappy Ibanez TS7 to be more TS9 like and paired that with a Xotic BB Preamp both as more boosts than OD and cascaded them into the HRM and was getting some awesome tones. Both on the clean and OD channel. A lot of tweaking these amps is using the "less is more" principal. Over doing any of the controls can get you in less than stellar territory fast.

Back to the speaker, if you can get an real EVM12L it's probably a good place to start especially since you just want a 1X12. The WGS's are awesome speakers, just the ET-65 is a different beast.

I think the best power tubes are ones that will get the closest to a RCA black plate sound. I really think the TAD WGC STR's are great. I'm still using the ones I started with. When it's time to replace these tubes I will mostly likely get the same thing. Unless I happen upon some great NOS at a great price. I don't see that happening though. Preamp tubes are probably more tricky. Have you been to visit http://www.ampgarage.com yet. There's lots of info on tubes over there in the Dumble section. The one thing that got me some better tone than what I started out with was putting an RCA grey short plate in V1. This really was an eye opener about NOS. I'm still not someone who's going to go crazy with NOS tubes, especially since it seems like most the good supply have dried up unless you're willing to spend a truckload of money. I hope I can find a couple more NOS 12AX7's without emptying the bank account. It seems everytime someone has some at a good prices I just miss them and they are sold. 

I hope my long and rambling post is coherent enough to help. 

Thanks for spending the time to reply guys. It really has given me more of any idea what to expect. To explain tone over the Internet is certainly not easy, especially it being so subjective.

With the bluesmaster, I've heard that the cleans are definitely fender inspired, while the overdrive section is more marshall. After reading that description, I though "hang on, I want a dumble OD not Marshall!"

From the sounds of it, the bluesmaster will have plenty of tweak-ability on tone (with the mods included) which should be able to give me a wide sonic specturm in tone and hopefully get "that tone" I'm after. Although if I'm honest, I am after that thick & blooming typical dumble sounding overdrive... I was thinking if I needed more gain, I can always use my Zendrive, OCD or MI Audio Tubezone.

I've sent Nik another email to confirm a few things as suggested by soundperf above. I guess at this stage it's just a toss up between the hrm and hrm bluesmaster. I feel guilty bugging Nik all the time!

Out of curiosity Greg, why did you change your choicemin speakers?

Again, thanks guys... Any further feedback or advice would be appreciated!

Agreed. As Chris said. With the BM the more Marshall like tones can be there, but, really it's not like a plexi or JCM800 sound, at least to my ears. It's more of an early Marshall sound, or Tweed Bassman sound. It all depends on how you set your EQ, and what speakers you use, though.

That being said, if you turn the OD trim up and drive the amp hard, you can get more modern marshall sounds, hell even some early mesa sounds if you want, but it's not what the amp is best at.

To answer you question about my speaker changes; when i originally got the amp i had it hooked up to my 20 year old 4X12 with the 20 year old eminence Delta 12a's in it. It sounded ok, but i had originally planned to used the 1265 alnicos anyway, so when i got the combo cab and put em they sounded pretty good, but had a lil more bass than i was expecting and wasn't as tight as i liked, so i put the old Deltas in and was happy with the punchy bass. i actually considered selling the webers, but something told me to keep em. I hooked my mp3 player up to the amp and let it burn in while i was home and while i was sleeping to help loosen it up. The deltas sounded pretty good, but kinda sterile. I'm not sure if it was age or just the curve of the speaker.

Meanwhile, i had the webers in another combo, hooked up to a hifi playing music thru it about 8 hours a day for 3 days, then i put the webers back in the amp, and it was magic. They weren't flubby and they had nice smooth highs and mids. I like em for my sound, but that's not to say everyone will. A little bit of experimentation goes along way

Gregg

I agree 100% with this

You're going to love it.

Of all the music equipment I have purchased through the years there's been just a few that were something special. They are a few guitars and my Ceriatone HRM 50.

Yup!! If there's one solid state amp to have, this is it.(and the JC120) That's really cool you got one. It will be a cool thing to play with. Have fun!!