I went and bought a D180 with 2 15 Diesel road ready yesterday. I plugged it in and tested it worked at a low volume. Was happy all was in order. The amp came with a bag of tubes and some paper work.
I got back very pleased last night and started to read through the old manual and found a service report from 1998.
It appears that the service tech was a bit of an idiot and has done quite a few significant alterations!
I have attached the report
in summary they have carried out an investigation and thought that the wiring was suspect- and that the master volume arrangement was irregular!
Looks like they have essentially replaced the master volume circuit, and messed with the cascading gain stage wiring.
I am going to take it to the practice room later to see how it sounds with these mods, however I am thinking I want these modifications reversing so the amp is as designed!