That's lovely...

50W built by me... mods done to mine are increased slope resistor (I think I have 56k but I'm not sure) and bass pot reduced to 250k.
I use 1x12" Celestion Gold with the amp... sometimes I add 1x12" G12-65 cab as well.

Well for me this amp is not "by the book" D sounding amp. Clean tone is very Fenderish and OD is more aggressive compared to D sound standards.
Sometime I use pedals with the amp and sometime D-lator with my Lexicon MPX1. I like both configurations... my main guitar is Tele but last gig I had, I used LP as my main axe and the amp was sounding just as good. String definition on this amp is excellent... that's why it takes pedals well I would guess.
Bass response can be challenging, so if you are after bright sounding amp than this is definitely not for you.

I would say with this amp you need to learn how to use it or you can make it sound really bad.
Definitely a good amp but not for everybody... lt's like you need to learn how to love it.
 

Good to hear that... normally these things are something stupid... and as such hard to detect. Take it as a great learning experience as now after all this activities you know more about amps don't you.

So it like... tanks God for this, as it made me better.
 

Also try without pedal in manual mode.... just to be sure it's the amp and not the pedal.

Real 183 had 59V on V3 cathode side... that's not to far from what Ken has.

I don't think he has a problem with PI section.... after all Clean CH  works fine for him.

Can't spot anything from here but just one thing you can check. 100K pre OD pot... check if it's touching chassis... usually there is very tight fit and if you're not careful you can have a short there.
If I were you, I would use my multimeter in continuity mode and check everything for shorts.

So V1 is fine, troubleshooting V2 should be even easier...

Let's assume all resistor and caps are fine... I would say you have a wiring issue. Check everything again.... maybe you have a cold solder somewhere. At least you could re-solder all V2 connections.

Voltages look OK to me...

I would say you have a fault at V1, maybe tone stack, maybe input if your power section works fine.
Can you post some pictures?

Is your clean ch working OK?

Have you tried replacing V1,V2 tubes?

What about if I make this one sticky...

http://ceriatoneforum.com/index.php?topic=1117.msg8076#msg8076

It's this one...
http://www.tube-town.net/ttstore/product_info.php/info/p2198_Grill-Cloth-Tube-Town-Large-Check-Brown.html
I don't know which material exactly... the cabs were ordered... I didn't make it myself.

How about this one...

True you need to fine tune the bias circuit for 6L6 tubes...

amazing.... as always
 


BTW what pups are you using on that tele?

When setting PI balance you should be measuring AC voltage and not DC.
If you have a scope connect probes to plates, set the scope to measure AC, then use "sum" function. The goal is to have set both Vpp at the same value.

Here's the video I made a while back...