Andrew, I'm no expert, and I offer the following for educational discussion. I have heard it said that Paramounts built during the bike boom may sometimes show some quality control issues. A handbuilt bike manufacturer can't ramp up production from "several hundred per year by the mid-60s" to "during the 70's... 1,200 units annually" without having quality control challenges. There's not a large pool of experienced bike framebuilders out there, back then or now.
Excerpts from Waterford's Paramount history [
http://www.waterfordbikes.com/
"Frank started production in 1959. Wanda Omelian performed brazing almost from the outset,... Production, which before amounted to fifty to one hundred frames per year, grew to several hundred per year by the mid-60's. By then, Frank began to expand staff to include Louise Redman who, along with Wanda, had become so closely identified with the Paramounts by the mid-70's.... During the 70's, Paramount sales rose to 1,200 units annually. Schwinn supplemented Paramount production with contract-built frames by Don Mainland and Roger Nelson...."
Peter ============================================ Peter Brueggeman La Jolla California USA pbrueggeman(AT)ucsd.edu
"...i was looking over a nervex-lugged paramount i just picked up and i
realized that there seems to be some space between the top head tube lug and
the top tube. shots: http://andrewgura.com/