Greg,
I agree entirely. Neve's have gained a strong reputation (and some borderline ridiculous prices) because of the authority of the sound they produce. However, it is this heavy-handed sonic signature that makes them, IMHO, limited in their use. For drums, I absofreakinlutely love them, as well as for vocals that need to cut through a dense mix. But for most other things something like an api fits the bill by adding tone, but not so much that your mix becomes muddy by using it on lots of tracks.
I really like Dan Kennedy's approach to cleaning up the tone a bit to make this design a bit more broadly applicable (GR's NV preamp). Joe Malone's new output transformer will probably be a great thing for this as well, based on his stated objective for the design. I'm gonna get a couple to check out for sure.
As to the gain, yeah, for most pop-related tracking two gain stages is enough. If you need a touch more gain then something like JLM's Hot-Rod Mod for the 1272 should get you there. I have actually built several channels of my own take on the two-stage design based on some of Joe's work as well as input for Geoff Tanner, etc, adjusting gain on both stages, and the results are fabulous. I do have some original 3-stage Neve's, but for drums and anything generally 'loud', my 1272's are wonderful.
If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to share the schematic. It's a very simple design, but still allows six different gain settings (up to 65dB) and a continuously variable pad/trim. If you want it, PM me with an email address, or if anyone wants to host it and post a link here, just let me know. I think it's a great first Neve project for DIY'ers.
Peace,
JC