[redavide]

I just A/B'd Doug's re-worked version of my track with the original. Amazing improvement. The clarity and definition of Doug's is striking when compared to the muddiness of the original. And this taking into consideration the limitations Doug had in having to work with my mono, clipped track. I can only imagine what he would have done with a clean, stereo track . . .

So, hat's off to Doug for going above and beyond what I could have reasonably expected when I started this thread -- and thanks to everyone else for the valuable input.

At this point, I think I'll limit my purchases to materials for building sound panels and then try to build a proficiency at recording with my existing set-up by experimenting with the 2 mics I have (I only recently acquired my 2nd mic) for full stereo tracks; focusing on mic placement; recording at proper levels; improving reverb and EQing and mixing better.

As for the reverb, I've been using an outboard Lexicon PCM70 which is a little old but still sounds fairly decent. The only way I've been able to use it in my set-up is by taking an original dry guitar track and re-feeding it into the PCM70 and recording a 100% wet track, then mixing a little of it in with the dry track. After reading Doug's comments on the less-than-stellar quality of my mono track, it occurred to me that I've basically been doubling my errors by re-recording my clipped track for a reverb track and then mixing 2 clipped tracks together! If I use this technique with a good, clean, stereo dry track, I'm predicting the reverb will sound much, much better.

Anyway, thank you all again for all the help -- especially to Doug Young for his time and expertise. I never would have imagined getting this much valuable input when I innocently asked for some opinions about upgrades a couple of days ago. The direction this thread took really woke me up and opened my eyes to some very fundamental and valuable ideas.