And here's the same pickup order, with the same amp settings except that the preamp gain is now at 6 and the master is at about 1.25. I wish I could turn the master up more but until I can pad the mic's input . . .

Lace Hot Gold Dirty

Interesting that as you crank the amp's preamp, the more it takes over the tone. I guess that shouldn't surprise me because with distortion comes compression and so the level differences that are so obvious when playing clean get lost (or at least hidden) when playing dirty.

Oh, and here's that picture I promised. It's a bit washed out--probably because it's so bright in my living room because of all the snow we have outside. But you get the point. I didn't screw the pickguard back down yet because I haven't decided if I want to adjust the height on the neck pickup any further. Besides the "none more black" pickups, note the similarly black new GraphTech saddles. No rattling from these! A huge improvement over stock.