:)Thanks for all the help!

[kdunn]

To everyone here:
I've had a good time reading and learning. Just do your research, read the directions and HEED THE WARNINGS and everything will be fine.
I had the ideal situation, a 3GS on the old boot-rom manufactured in week 39-40. It has been jail-broken and unlocked since 3.1.2 when I first got it. It was part of the reason I'm using a Macbook today and I've had a lot of fun modifying it.
The problem with the phone was it was just plain weak. I have pictures of my phone next to two or three other iphones showing 1 or 2 bars to their 4-5 bars. Constantly dropped calls and just plain weak performance. I had my little phone customized and tweaked just the way I wanted it but it's core function as a PHONE sucked. I tried everything from upgrading to backing down. Up to 4.1 with original bb, back to 3.1.2 and then stepping back up. I even upgraded to the 3.1.3 bb and then back to 4.1 while preserving the bb at 3.1.3. No Joy. Nothing helped the phone's reception. It was also a little squirrely on WiFi too, but that's another story.
After a lot of angst, and screwing around with it for over a year, I finally bit the bullet and traded it in on a refurbished 3GS today. 5 bars all the way home from the Apple store in Ginza (except for subway tunnels), but loaded with current 4.2.1/bb 05.15.04/iboot 359.3.2. . . . .
It's bittersweet. I miss my modded phone very much. SBsettings, where are you? But it sure is nice to look at the bars and know you're not going to miss/drop calls.
Waiting patiently for 4.3 to drop and hoping that that's what Dev-Team is waiting for to release an untethered JB/Unlock. The one bright spot is when I fired up TinyUmbrella, there were SHSH's stored back to 4.1 so someone has jailbroken this one before.
Patiently Waiting

[iYeow]

GreenPois0n will give you untethered jailbreak at 4.2.1, you don't need to downgrade to 4.1 to get untethered.

[kdunn]

Yes! You are absolutely correct. I skimmed right over that, but the unlock is still waiting in the wings Thanks for setting me straight.
k

[iYeow]

If you are not desperate to unlock , then you can wait but if you do need unlock urgently, you have to go with ipad baseband but your GPS may not function.

[kdunn]

After smacking my forehead and calling myself bad names for forgetting about GP RC6, I was up till 1am jailbreaking and tweaking. I'm very happily reset back to nearly my old configuration (it always evolves).
No, I'll wait patiently for the unlock. I don't have to have it until mid-year this year when I transfer back to the US. My carrier is Softbank in Japan. So until then. . .