I'm still rebuilding mine. The only thing I kept was the transformer, which happens to be the most expensive part of a GC. When I built mine a couple of years ago, it was my second or third DIY project. Most of the resistors and caps were bought for pennies at a surplus store and the point to point soldering was a mess. It wasn't a "safe" job, with lots of exposed solder joints and ungrounded chassis. Nevertheless, it was still a great sounding amp, but I decided it was time to rebuild with better parts.
I couldn't find a chassis I like (and can afford), so I've been building one from scratch. This is taking most of my time. Compared to the chassis, the electronics is a snap.
This time around, I used the 3886 and snubberized PS. Love the change with the PS. The "classic" PS scheme with only 1,000uF seems anemic by comparison. That's why I keep asking about your PS. Interested in hearing your impression of this mod. For signal and feedback resistors, I used Kiwame carbons. I used these on my Marchand boards (a completely different project) and loved the sound. Smooth and sweet.
I'll post pix as soon as I'm done. Keep me up to date on you PS mod.
P.S. About the volume control, if you're using a preamp, you don't need one on the GC. But having a pot in place does allow you to use the GC as a stand alone. And yes, spring for a good one if you're going to use it. I've got a bunch of stepped ALPS from a local shop during a close-out sale and their great. Not too hard to build your own with a DP12T switch. 24 steps is nice, but in reality, 12 steps is all you need. You just have to figure out what those 12 steps are. If you do use a cheap pot, wire it in shunt so it doesn't sit in the signal path.
Gar.
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