I was actually steering away from 6L6 tubes as my Fender is 6L6 (and I heard somewhere that mesa are also), and I dont like that tone for overdrive/distortion. Also, I think I prefer the sound of mostly power amp distortion as opposed to all preamp.
Then you'll like the EL34s. 6L6, 6550s, KT88s, KT66s, etc. get warm but stay super clean when abused.