Tweaking the Tweak-o: a couple of questions...

[bipedal]

I'm between pedal projects, so I dug out my old Tweak-o (single transistor overdrive, my first pedal build from, using Small Bear's kit) to modify.  I've added an SWTC tone control, added another silicon diode and an LED in series to the clipping section, and have increased the Gain and Level pot values  -- am really digging the sounds I'm getting out of this thing: full, crisp, good clarity of individual strings.  More crunchy oomph than my Tube Screamer, but not as crazy evil as the compressed distortion of my Rat...

I'm planning to keep noodling with it, but one thing I've noticed and seek your feedback on:

The pedal's output level seems to rise slightly as the gain/fuzz pot is rolled off, so the cleaner settings are louder than the distorted settings.
1)  What causes this?  (Related to signal being lost in the clipping stage?)
2)  Any good ways to balance this out so the output on higher drive settings is (roughly) equivalent to the output when the drive pot is lowered?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts/suggestions.

- Jay

[petemoore]

1)  What causes this?  (Related to signal being lost in the clipping stage?)
  It looks like the pot trims the clipping amount,  less clipping would mean higher output.. [also, with the gainpot set to 0.0k, the collector would be held to one diode drop difference from the base on - and + signal swings...
  Maybe try a dual 250k pot, use one side insert increasing resistance between the volume pot and ground as the other side of the dual lowers resistance between diodes and collector.
  Some tweeking of values of all mentioned components including the volume pot.
  I would stick with re-adjusting the volume pot as necessary to compensate for clipping losses as the gain pot is turned toward lower resistance.