I'd like to thank those who participated in this thread and helped me through my several issues. I hope everyone enjoyed reading it, including those latecomers who chose to just lurk and monitor the thread (you know who you are ).
And....
This is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking I asked others to apply when considering my concerns. Instead of reading and understanding what I wrote (and asking questions if they didn't), I got a bunch of "suggestions" to do things that I had already tried or said I was going to try (that's the "reading" part) from a group of "experts" who insisted that my amp was now working the way it was supposed to work and that I was stupid to think that it working in any other manner was correct (the "understanding" part). I guess since I built my version of a clone of their "holy grail" amp, it had to sound and operate the way they said it should instead of the way I wanted it to. Foolish me. Guess they taught me my lesson, eh? But that's OK. I'm fine being stupid in other people's eyes as long as I am happy and not hurting anyone.
I guess I missed the fact that his amp was not a clone but an alteration of the design, specifically to have less gain I'm assuming? That said, I hope the guy understood that my experience of what is "normal" for these amps was from my experience owing 3 original Trainwreck amps. I still don't call myself an expert per se, but I do have decades of experience of what to typically expect from these amps.
The odd thing was another amp of his began having episodes of feedback, which it never displayed before. Maybe the guy lives under a radio tower or something.
I haven't seen a topic like that on a forum for awhile. I would have assumed if you ask questions then you are looking for answers. Of course not every answer will be gold. He did come off as a bit "precious", good thing he decided to leave, I guess it works out for everyone.
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