May be a silly question, but I have a plethora......... You guys showed me how to pick the best of each take using the mute tool, but I naively and over protectively, used a new track for each lead guitar session do I'd like to combine them into 1 lead guitar track with ~9 takes.....

Not quite sure of the question...it sounds like you want to bounce all the takes together, but also keep the individual takes (maybe in case you change your mind)?

I want to keep all the takes in one track is all(no combining of takes just cut/paste type dealio, then I can use the mute tool to choose the best bits of each take for the eventual final "performance" all in one track.

Hi. You could bounce the tracks to a new stereo track. Select the tracks you need. Under tracks (https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9f3ad2706eba5d86!1375&authkey=!ALoOOMIrwKXATNk&v=3&ithint=photo%2cjpg), select bounce to track. You will now have a stereo track, containing all your tracks, while keeping your previous recordings.
Best of luck.

Sorry for posting same reply. Did not show up while typing.
 

To preserve the take lanes, you will want to create the new track, show lanes, and click the '+' to add 8 additional empty lanes (or you can start by adding 6 lanes to one of the existing tracks). Then Ctrl+Shift+drag copies of the clips (selected by lasso or by clicking the track number) from each source track to the target track. Shift will ensure that the start times are preserved.
 
Note, however, that the copies from the first three lanes of the source track are always initially pasted to the same three lanes of the target track, regardless of where you're hovering when you drop them. So you'll need to drop them, and then immediately Shift+drag them up to the desired lanes as necessary. They stay selected, and the momentary overlaps with previously dragged clips in T1-3 shouldn't cause a problem so long as your editing mode is Blend in Preferences. You'll also want to make sure that you're not set to Paste as Linked Clips.

Brundlefly has the correct answer for your problem. I have to do this kind of stuff all the time as I work out parts. After you are done and you are CERTAIN you have ALL the takes in the desired track you can delete the other tracks to save processing power. To be on the safe side do a Save As before deleting the tracks OR you can simply Archive the tracks (press the A button on the track controls) then go to the Track Manager to Hide them so they don't take up extra screen real estate. The Archiving action will remove them from the processing duties but you can still access them (unArchive them) if you have to need them again.
 
Cheers.

I am going to give that a go. Yup I always do "save a copy" before and after each session or major computer change. Disk space is not an issue!
 and thanks for that info Zargg. As in most things CW, there are more ways than one to skin a cat.

As it turns out, I only need to copy take 1 from track 5 to take 2 of track 3, but it ain't working..... clicking track number or ctl shift drag? I'm not catching on here.
 Maybe I'll try the stereo thing...

 ok I have them bounced to a stereo track. If I convert to mono, will it combine or separate into 2 takes?