Quieter than expected Tonebender

[Drew Hallenbeck]

Sooooo, I built one of the 2017 Tonebender boards from the "classics" section of the shop. When I got it done and fired it up, it was considerably quieter than I expected it to be. I'm pretty sure I had a bad trimpot because the voltage jumped back and forth like crazy with just minor adjustments. I also thought changing R8 for a higher value might increase output. I listed a bunch of different transistors to try out too.
Now, some time has passed and I got back around to it. I replaced the trimpots and removed R8 and put in sockets. I already had sockets in for the transistors.
So, trimpots are good and I was able to easily and accurately adjust bias.
I played around with R8 and settled on 1k5.
I tried a bunch of different transistors in various combinations.
Still, it seems like this thing should be louder overall than it is. I have to set the fuzz control pretty high and keep the volume control close to max just to be a bit above unity.
It's not even close to the first pedal I've built but it is my first Tonebender. Silicon or otherwise.
Is it just not that loud of a circuit?
Am I missing something?