Help with VHT D60 - How to enhance my tone - tube question

I"ve spent the last week really reading up on my amp and really trying to understand it. I read from reviews, to blogs, to articles, to whatever I could get my hands on. I really wanna maximize my tone and learn how certain aspects of my amp affect my tone and what I can do to enhance it.


What the eff does this mean and how does this affect what tubes I place in the V spots?!?!?!

Per Fryette's manual.....

PREAMP GAIN / VOLUME SECTION

2. GAIN I / VOICING – Sets the amount of overdrive in the second gain stage. This first gain control also
serves as a tone shaping control, counter-clockwise for crisp and articulate, clockwise for thick and
saturated.

3. GAIN II / OVERDRIVE – Full frequency gain boost or cut. Sets the amount of overdrive in the third gain
stage. Works in conjunction with Gain I to dial in the perfect overdrive/sustain amount for your guitar and
pick-up combination.

4. MORE / LESS –This switch selects three stages or four stages of tube preamp gain depending on the
amount of overdrive required. LESS = 3 stages, MORE = 4 stages. When using stomp boxes or active
pick-ups, four stages of gain are often unnecessary and generate

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What's the gain stages mean? Does it mean when engaged it's only using all 4 pres and when it's not it's using 3 pres?

Each 12AX7 has two sections/functions. Section A is shown first, Section B is second.

V1 (shielded tube) Input Gain Stage 1 (Parallel Triodes).

V2 (shielded tube) Gain Stage 2 - Stage 4. Active only when MORE / LESS switch is set to MORE.

V3 (shielded tube) Gain Stage 3 - Tone Control Driver.

V4 Phase Inverter.

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This is what I don't understand yet and really want to. This way I can know exactly what tubes I should use in the V spots and how said tube will affect the amp.

I'm running a pair of Genalex Gold Lion RI KT88s for the power tubes. I have around 11 pres I can use for the V spots. Here's what I got.

Tungsol - 2x
EHX - 2x
JJ ECC83
Sovtek LPS
Sovtek WB
4 Rubys (older)

Each tube has two halves which can each be a gain stage or something else. For example, the V4 tube in my Marshall JVM acts as a Reverb mix driver and FX loop send buffer.

As far as I understand it V1 is the first gain stage used all the time. Half of V2 (lets call it "V2A") is the second gain stage (its amount of overdrive is controlled by Gain I), and the other half ("V2B") is the fourth gain stage. V3 is the third gain stage and as the name states, is the tube that affects how the tone controls respond.