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Hi there Chris,
I got a variable contrast head last year and was AMAZED at how vile & contrasty my first prints were at max black time and at normal contrast settings.
It turned out that Ilford Multigrade was not compatible with my Zone VI VC head; at least with my twenty years of negatives developed to print on Ilford Galerie grade 2 with a cold light.
I was impressed by Multigrade's potential and by the number of photographers who's work I respect who used it, to make it work with my negatives and the Zone VI head.
Ilford say's "MULTIGRADE papers are designed for use with a tungsten light source". What is your light source?
What worked for me was a CP40Y filter above the negative. The yellow within two sheets of glass in my new negative carrier also helped in lowering the contrast, as I started using Lynn Radeka's masking process at the same time which requires a glass carrier.
These combined with a developer change to Ansco 120 (with benzatriozole) 1:3 for three minutes and around a 5 minute selenium toning at 1:10 all allow me to print my old negatives with the VC light source settings at normal contrast.
Paper manufacturers regularly "improve" their papers. Over the years I have had to change brands several times when a newer "improved" papers grades moved radically...leaving my normal negatives adrift and a long way from the new grade 2.
I prefer to switch brands than to change my normal development time.
Anyways, sounds like it's a light source colour issue. Either adapt the light source, or find a brand of paper thats compatible with it. Hope this helps...I scratched my head for quite a while!!! Then again, it could be something completely different..?
Have fun in the dark,
Murray
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