Advice needed on homebrew amp

[badfan]

Guys

Excellent forum by the way... I have recently built anamp (schematic attached) and in summary I am really pleased with how this one has turned out. Excellent sound / response / medium gain / tone etc.

I am not the most technically advanced amp builder or experienced so I have a few questions for some changes I looking to do for the next version of this amp.

a) Looking for a bit more power 30-50 watts - probably 2xEL34 etc - would prefer cathode BIAS etc - what do you think? - what would I need to change on the schematic - would still like to keep the compression / dynamics in the sound etc just a more volume.

b) I originally disconnected stage 2 and put stage 4 on a switch - however when I switch out stage 4 the sound is not that good so I leave stage 4 on all the time and use the gain / guitar volume control accordingly. For the next version I will put stage 2 on a DPDT swicth so I can switch in/out for high gain etc. Does this look reasonable - should I be looking to change the stage values etc? - will this give a good crisp high gain sound?

c) Originally this is based on a 18watt output etc. There is no choke on this amp - curiuos as to why? do I need one movng forward etc.

d) Probably put the 1st stage cathode on a switch call it "thick" (like me)

e) I like Fender 65 Super Reverb amps (built a few clones) and I have learnt that I like NFB to be fairly low (65's have 820r as the NFB resistor) however on this amp the resistor is around 100k but the response is excellent rather than being hard / sterile etc (which I found before) - can someone answer why this is?

Any other comments / suggestions would be gratefully received.
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Ct200