Well....after playing and tweaking the LP build I finished up, I came to the realization that circuit is just too wild for my tastes. I just don't have much use for that much gain and temperament so I decided to covert it over to a Rocket and am MUCH happier. There is still more than enough gain to be has here but there is a much broader range of clean/clean-ish tones and the " jangle" tones with my Strat are just to die for . All in all I learned a great deal about these circuits but in the end....a GREAT AC-30 tone on steroids was the Dailey for me I added a Matchless type/cross-line MV just because I had an extra hole left in the chassis once the LP circuit was converted to a Rocket. It works pretty good but I think I'll end up with a Lar-Lar aka "type 2" MV when it's all over. I did not have any 250k dual-gang pots on hand so I just threw in a 1MA and did the type 3/Matchless type.
Glad you are happy with the results. Rockets are wonderful amps. And the higher gain of the Liverpool/Express certainly isn't for everyone.
It's worth mentioning that there are ways to tame these amps a bit. In my Express, I used a split plate load, which you can configure to taste (50/50, 75/25, 25/75, etc). I found that for me, it brought the Express into a range that was just right for me. Others have played with cathode and plate resistor values as well.
But in the end, its about finding the amp/voice that suits you.
Yes.....I prefer a more cleaner/jangley platform for my pedals and the Rocket seems to work better for me. A few things still left to do to this one:
1. Change the .047uf caps to .022uf to loose a little bass....these Rockets are a little too heavy in the bottom for my tastes.
2. Increase the bright cap on the mini toggle control from 100pf to 220pf. The 100pf is a tad too subtle.I currently have it on a toggle so I can switch it in/out at will. I'll simply swap it out for a 220pf.
These changes should put me exactly where I want to be
Hi Doxie Man. I am also considering changing my Liverpool to a Rocket. I find that my Liverpool is great with my strat but not as nice with my Gibson SG. BTW i switched from a cross wire master volume to a Lar Type 2 and it sounded much better with the Lar Type 2 MV. An attentuator is also a great way to go, it also sounds better than a cross wire MV.
So... How much of a conversion did you do? Just the preamp? I imagine you stayed with your same iron? Were you using a 6600ohm primary OT?
I also have a Liverpool (with VVR) that I find myself wanting to clean up more, realizing that I probably should have built a Rocket to suit my needs.
I am considering some of these smaller mods SLiberty speaks of. Do you suppose there is a good first substitution to try? Was there one that you quite liked that might even work on a switch?
I realize there are a lot of threads from me and my Liverpool over the years trying to get a cleaner range from it. Including 5751 in V1, Switching to a Gibson historic 500K Volume pot (giving me half the range of the typical 1M), and using the 5K3 OT tap.
After comparing a the schematics a bit more closely, I see that much of the differences with the Rocket are in the preamp... aside from the choke,tube recto, 4K3 OT, and HT Voltage???
Anyways, I'm thinking I'll try a V2 Split Plate load first. I think I could put it on a switch that basically moves the plate insertion point to either side of an 82K resister, that would be after the 22k resister coming from B+4.
I'm guessing this toggle would have to be switched while the amp is off, so I would put in the back panel.
We will see how this goes.
well, I decided to try reducing the feedback resister first. I dropped it to 33k and that really cleaned things up... and gave a much better range of clean to crunch... so I didn't do the split plate load on V2a. I think this is now perfect for how I normally use it. I don't think I can get the really thick distortion anymore though. I also have a 500K pot for volume right now with a resister to equal the 1M. I'm really curious how this compares to a Rocket now because I have never built or played that circuit.
So, what I think I'll do is add a switch on the back in place of one of my speaker jacks that adds about a 50K resister in parallel to the regular 100K feedback resister. Then it will just be the High/Low Gain switch. I think I'll just keep the regular wire and 100K resister stock and this will be it's own wire, switch and resister that is added to the circuit and also attached to the presence pot. There is something satisfying about maintaining the stock Liverpool and Express circuits with just an added feature.
Choke arrived today and I installed it. I also redid the power section and cleaned and organized things better inside. The conversion is now complete and I am most pleased with it. This Wrocket 30 is a wonderful amp
. All in all I learned a great deal about these circuits but in the end....a GREAT AC-30 tone on steroids was the Dailey for me 
I added a Matchless type/cross-line MV just because I had an extra hole left in the chassis once the LP circuit was converted to a Rocket. It works pretty good but I think I'll end up with a Lar-Lar aka "type 2" MV when it's all over. I did not have any 250k dual-gang pots on hand so I just threw in a 1MA and did the type 3/Matchless type. 
