Just a quick update. Well, maybe not that quick...
I was a little concerned that the amp was getting hot so I pulled the chassis to check the bias. I was getting 350vac at the rectifier as expected and about 430vdc on the plates of the KT66s which I thought was fine. One of the KT66s was at 32mA (about where it should be) and the other was at 93mA!!! So I swapped the tubes and and the high reading stayed with the same KT66. So, bad tube I determine. Got a new set of KT66s from Guitar Center (from the 'back' with no box...) and one of them was DOA. The other, however matched within a couple of mA of the one with the very high reading. So I was thinking the tube that read 32mA was the good one but now I'm thinking it was the bad one. Just for a reference, I put in a pair of old Tung Sol 5881s and they too are both reading very high - in the 86mA range. Bear in mind I've got the bias pot cranked and can't get them down any lower. So, I'm looking at the bias circuit and see that the 1st resistor is 220k and the schem calls for 180k. I check the voltage at the V of the 2 220k resistors that feed to pins 5 of the KT66s and I'm getting around -25 volts. This looks way off from the readings I'm seeing on JTM45 voltage charts.
So I lower the 220k bias resistor to 180k and now my readings are around 55mA. Much closer! I took it down to 120k and voila, I can get both the KT66s and 5881s in the 35mA range with room to go either way on the bias pot.
So, I'm wondering (maybe Wiggle can jump in here), maybe the bias was set to the "bad" tube that had the 32mA reading? I know the original GZ34 got broken in transit. Maybe that had some bearing here. (I did try 3 different GZ34s to double check everything).
So, the verdict is that now the amp isn't freaking me out that the head cab will catch fire and it sounds AWESOME!!!
I have 2 V30s in the 2x12 cab for now until I get the Scumbacks - hopefully this weekend. After I get them I'll record it and post the clips...