So I just realized that the slightly weird biasing I use on transistors in several circuits means that the transitors have to be in backwards ... and I've been putting them in backwards in a bunch of stuff! Oh dear. :(
Which circuits?
Hate that. Funny how things can work even when they are wrong!
Mossy Sloth (I'm going with "it's thematic because sloths hang upside down") mainly. The Clipper Ship used the weird biasing (base to +9v instead of the collector or Vb) intentionally and the transistors go in the correct way. Then when I was working on the Mossy Sloth, it included part of the Clipper Ship, and at some point I decided to see how big I could make the collector resistors while using the same biasing network. I ended up flipping the transistors and completely forgot to make a note of it. I thought my Eagle library had something wrong with it. :P
I just did a bunch of testing, though, and it doesn't sound radically different to flip them around and rebias, but it does have a touch more gain (actual gain, not distortion ... the distortion levels aren't too different). I'll just make an alternate bill of materials ... it's really only four resistors that need to change to have them oriented right side up. I might box up another and do an A/B.