First of all, I know John Cope, I buy HP parts through John.
Second, your posts are jumbled and meander all over the place.
You seem to be confusing releasing the transbrake with the 1-2 shift, they are not related.
Transbrake on:
Rear band , Rear clutch, Front clutch on.
(Trans is now in 1st and Reverse gear at the same time)
Transbrake Off and launching in 1st gear:
Rear band, Rear clutch on.
(Front clutch was dumped via Transbrake switch to release Reverse gear and unlock the trans)
Second gear:
Front band, Rear clutch on.
(Rear band dumped, front band applied)
What full manual VB designers have been trying to do is cut down the overlap time between releasing the Rear band ( dumping 1st gear) and applying the front band ( applying second gear). That's obviously easier to do with a billet VB.
And they seem to have done a good job of it.
The only manual VB's I use, have rear band apply in 1st. Doesn't matter if it has a transbrake of not.
From what I can see, all of Johns VB's ( either just Manual or with a Transbrake) have the rear band apply until the trans shift into second gear.
To be honest, I'm not really sure what your trying to get at?