Thinking about ordering one of these preamps. Not sure if I want the stepped gain or variable. That is the only question I am still trying to answer. My R-44 has stepped gain so I am thinking I may want variable gain so I can raise or lower the gain smoothly. I'm gonna email Jerry and see what the realistic wait time is. If anyone knows of someone thinking about selling....that may be an option too.
If I were you, I'd get stepped. Less likely to get bumped in the bag. Your -44 has both stepped and variable, so it's easy enough to make small tweaks on it if necessary. Personally, having variable on some of my other pres has always been a bit scary to me - I have definitely jostled the knob on my littlebox (luckily not during music) and made it move.
Jerry told me the current wait is 1mo, but we shall see