Sonic Distortion tone control

[colonelmot]

I recently made my third SD9 clone as at GGG - my older clones having gradually died with time. The other ones were made a few years ago from an older layout at GGG before it was updated with pulldown resistors etc. Anyway the tone knob on my new clone doesn't act the way I remember the old clones did. quote from GGG I love the tone control, it never really cuts the highs! It's more of a "bass EQ" control than it is a standard "tone."  
My tone control is acting like a normal control and cutting highs on the bass side. This is kinda annoying I liked they way the old tone control added warmth without loosing crisipness.
Am I wiring something up wrong? or is this how the tone is sposed to work? Is the newer layout different with regards tone the tone control?
Also when I have the distortion at maximum I get a weird gating effect after I play loud chord then stop suddenly - the signal completetly dissappears for a split second then comes back in - its quite subtle and doesn't cut out when I sustain a note - but it bugs me!
Any ideas?

[Sonny ReVerb]

I checked the older schematic I have for the SD9 and the tone control values were identical to those on JD's schematic (except for the tone pot - 20k vs 25k). I wasn't crazy about the tone control when I built my SD9, so I changed some of the values. When I breadboarded the circuit I thought the overall tone was too bassy. Mine ended up a little brighter.

The other problem sounds like a mis-biased transistor, possibly? Check the voltages on the pins of your transistor (2SC1815) and also the IC.

Sonny