Does that mean you are also using a 12AY7 for the first preamp tube Chris? The OT you've chosen is just fine for a pair of EL84s, by the way. Try using 500K volume controls instead of 1M. And or, change that 1m resistor on the PI triode section to a 270K-470K. And or, replace the two grounded 220K grid load resistors on the El84s with a lower value too. Try 150K to 180K. Bruce Your split loads are just fine as far as I can tell. I've used the split load idea on AX84 amps (SE EL84) and on my brownface Bluestone amps (long tail PI/driver driving a pair of 6V6GTAs) just to keep the tweed preamp from hitting the PI/driver and subsequently, the power tubes, too hard. Yeah it would be the same relative drive relationship as I told you about... keep the AC drive levels down on EL84 amps. If you change that 1m resistor, on the PI triode into a 250Ka to 500Ka trimmer pot, you can use it to tweak the right drive to the El84s. With a couple tricks you can also make that setup into an interesting MV tweed amp. You could leave the 1M or, drop it to 250K to 500K and then move ahead of it with a MV setup. Use the exsisting high voltage blocking cap from the previous stage to drive the top of the new MV pot and then use another cap on the wiper connected to the 1M with that new blocking cap. There is a DC voltage on the 1M and cathode resistor, so you'd want to keep it off the wiper of the MV pot. Did that make sense? Bruce