new tone needs some help

What are you using for guitars? Pod?

I've always found that with Pod tones I can get away with throwing a lowpass on the guitar bus down as far as even 9K to get rid of some of that fakish fizz. Don't even really notice it affecting the brightness of the tone overall and that should allow you to push the gain a bit more without the harshness.

Always like your stuff man- keep up the good work!