Done to death.. Please help :(

Just from my own experiance man, My DI's IMHO Really stepped up in quality once i started running into a DI Box and then into my ADL 600 Tube pre, when it came time to re-amp the difference was very noticable. Before i had the tube pre i was running into a FP10.
 
We recently just started tracking DI's for my band. This was my first DI experience, and I learned alot of lessons (most of em the hard way)

1) New strings

(If they're older than 2 hours before I start tracking I restring - when we first started tracking our guitarist said "it's fine, they're only 3 days old". Next time we tracked they were strung right before we tracked and the difference was night and day. It's at that point he stopped arguing with me with recording issues)

2) Fresh Battery (A dying battery will make your DI's sound TERRIBLE)

3) Use a Nice DI Box (your countryman is fine)

4) Get a good preamp unit, the best you can afford, you are not going to get that "Pro" sound otherwise (The Profire series seems to be often recommended around here, the 610 model is very reasonable priced, but there are other good models out there)

5) Another thing that gets overlooked is a decent power conditioner. If you are getting alot of AC or EMI noise in your DI's this will really affect the quality, especially if you use alot of gain.
 
Alright guys, after replacing the battery, the difference is notable, but I can still notice a fair difference in quality etc then some of the 'good' DI's I've heard..

And considering I also know the wrap on the firebox. May I ask some suggestions for a better interface for all this sort of thing?
Something in the $1000 range!

Cheers!!
Chris and Orpheus
 
Recording at least at 24-bit 44.1khz?

How close are the pickups to the strings?

How does the guitar sound acoustically?

Pick attack makes a huge difference as well. I've seen some guys on $3k guitars sound TERRIBLE because they hold the pick at an odd angle.

Sounds like you are downtuned, what tuning and what size strings?

I use a firepod and my DI's never sound this lacking.