3 stage overdrive channel

[pdf64]

So even with the master up full you can't push the power tubes to clipping?

Have you tried a lower value slope resistor yet, eg 56k? Have a play in TSC first. That 3rd stage cathode may be better fully bypassed; as it is, the output impedance feeding the tone stack will nearly double at low frequencies.

[Lynxtrap]

So even with the master up full you can't push the power tubes to clipping?

Nothing worth mentioning.The thing is that the distorted signal is so compressed and muted by the time it reaches the PI there isn't much swing.

Well, someone gave me a good advice, which would be to mix both channels into V2B. That is not really even a change for the clean channel, but the gain will have an extra stage to ensure proper signal to the output stage.

I think I'll try this as soon as I have time to dig into it again.

I played some with the tonestack, trying Marshall values (not very effective), then Fender with high resistance to ground (made the stack pretty useless). I've been down to 22K on the slope, until I read somewhere that 100K is better for the impedance.
Some things work better with one version, and other things worse. And in the end there is not more gain to speak of out of any of them.