FWIW, check this thread out. Copious amounts of tight bass, smooth highs, and all the chime you could want. 470pf input cap, 47pf treble cap, .1 caps in the PI and .047 cap and 220k resistor at the input to the PI. The rockets had gz34 rectifiers too even with the stiff power supply. A Mullard will last 10 or 15 years I'm told and the current Sovteks will last pretty good too. I've had a couple going over three years now. I've blown up several JJ's when I threw the standby switch.
That is the Rocket that I have been telling you about the one I had here to play for a while and the thing is sick it sounds so good. One of the most musical sounding amps I have ever played just glorious. I have gushed about this amp time and time again I can't imagine that selection of parts sounding any better then it did when I tried it. Tight bass smooth round full I am trying to think of something that sounds like it, a piano a full grand piano has the percussive attack and full bodied sustain. But not in anyway over powering or muddy. When the guitar volume was turned down the treble was like glass bells shimmer and clarity it felt like guitar had double strings just gorgeous. When you crank the volume the thing rips but not in the over the top way of my Express more like an old JMI AC30 like the best sounding AC30.
If Tubedog gives you any clues how he did it you better take them to heart.
I just tried the tubedogsmith values: No bright cap. 500pf coupling cap after 1st stage. 47pf treble cap. Gorgeous clean tone and fat break up. A little farty when pushed hard. Lacking mid range grind when pushed hard.
My original values: 250pf bright cap. 1nf coupling cap. 500pf treble cap. The high mids are too strong by comparison to the tweaked values. So remove the bright cap, leaving 1nf coupling cap and 500pf treble cap. Really great midrange grind when pushed. I LOVE the overdrive tone at this point. Clean tone is a bit shrill compared to tubedogsmith values.
Now changing the treble cap to 300pf. Still LOVE the heavy overdrive. Clean is really nice but still too much high mids compared to tubedogsmith.
So I'm trying to find the best of both worlds now. I don't want to give up the mid range grind with heavy overdrive. Further reducing the treble cap to 150pf begins to revert back to the characdter of tubedogsmith values. Have lost the mid-range grind and still too much uper mids and now too much bass with the 1nf coupling cap. Sigh...
So, There are two sets of values I really like in the amp. For clean and early break up, I like tubedogsmith values. Great for neck pickup and single coil. But I like the coupling cap at 1nf and a 300pf treble cap for heavy overdrive, bridge pickup playing.
Time to add a swtich. John! need to decide if that switch goes on top of the chassis, hidden away or if you want it right on the front face.