DD unity gain + help

[smitty]

Hello,

Smitty here... nice to meet everyone as this is my first post to this forum....

Ok, so I have a problem that I am looking for some help with. I am trying to achieve unity gain
with my DD and I am having some serious feedback issues which is a pretty big problemo for me.
Currently I am playing lapsteel which has a handwound humbucker which is wound pretty hot at around
12.5k ohms.... it does have a coil tap which will bring it down to around 7.5k ohms. So here is the issue:
I use this as my main gigging amp, and this amp runs at about 12 watts... so I have the amp turned up
to about well.... 10, when I try to achieve unity gain with the DD I get feedback issues before achieving
unity... so at that point this pedal (which I dearly love the tone) becomes unusable for me. My goal
is really to use the pedal as a lead tone so I really need to bring the volume up just a bit over unity.

Here is my signal chain...

guitar in ---> barber tone press---->barber DD---->MXR carbon copy analog delay---->1969 fender princeton

The settings on the DD are: level 9:00, tone (pulled) 11:00, drive 3:00 at these settings I am in tonal bliss
through my princeton..... but alas I am running into feedback territory.... I really can not push my level
up to 9:00 with out feedback.... so I have no wiggle room at all to dial in unity + and can NOT even reach
unity

Here is where I am at in my debugging process:

1. this happens running my lapsteel using humbucker OR split single coil mode.

2. happens when I am ONLY using the DD in the chain, or with the Tone Press... doesnt matter

3. I went to the store where I purchased the DD... he did not have another, but he tried
a different electric guitar with standard PAFs (not as hot as my lapsteel) and he ran into
the same feedback problem running his PAFs through my DD into a Carr Rambler... he could
not set the level past 9:00 w/ out feedback. Also, he did have a barber LTD and we had the
same issues with the gain cranked... so this sort of put to rest as to whether or not I have
a microphonic pickup or not.... just had to rule that out... the pickup is brand new from
a very reputable pickup builder... and was wax potted under vacuum... so I am ruling microphonics
out as a potential problem, as he used a different guitar than mine and still had the problem.

Im stumped ladies and gentleman... and sure would love to use this pedal in a live situation as it
has become a major part of my sound

The only thing I can think of is to put a pot in there with a different taper, so that I have more
wiggle room to dial in Unity + without feedback.

to listen to a sound clip go to: www.myspace.com/milagrosaints and listen to the song
"A Million Times"

any suggestions would be extremely helpful,

thanks very much,

smitty