Any other NV3550 libs out there have loud high pitched gear whine in first through third gear??? Tranny drives smooth and clutch is fine but darn is it loud in the bottom gears... Is this normal??

Mine has always had a whine to it. In fact, the original owner has documentation that he brought it into the dealer for the same issue, and they checked everything out and it was OK.

1 to 2 shift is only rough in the cold for me...... But sometimes it does clunk sliding into gear. The tranny has been rock solid its just extremely noisy without the windows down or the radio on.

I know what you mean by catching on something........ That only happens to me every once and a while and I have to be shifting really fast. If I take it slow and do a delibrate 1 to 2 shift there is no problem except maybe a clunk sound here and there. You may be beating the synchros to the next gear???? If you catch on something you should be able to hear it, at least in my tranny I can audibly hear everything I do from pushing the clutch in to shifting around the gear lever.

Yes, I also know what you are saying about the pause between gears 1-2 and 2-3. I was used my smooth-shifting Mustang that I owned previously, and noticed the difference right away. I just assumed there was a difference between a truck and a car transmission, and I have gotten used to it.