Recording guitars direct - HELP!

Hey there, mix masters.
 
I'm in need of advise on how to record direct guitars and get them to sound good. There is a solo on this song at around 4 minutes that just sounds "direct" and fuzzy. Does anyone have any goto settings or techniques for those people who can't blast out an amp at all hours of the night? Any "magic button" suggestions are welcome. I'm plugged direct in through a Zoom GFX 3 pedal.
 
Al
 
PS:
 
The song is about Leonard, formerly abducted by aliens, who finds himself getting attracted to using religion as an excuse to embrace insanity. He finds an abandoned bible and struggles with it's contents.
 
Weird, I know, but I drank too much cough syrup the night I wrote it. Thanks in advance
 
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=805324&songID=10795073

pickle-

that song of mine you just reviewed in the songs forum, all those guitars were recorded direct.

i use a combination of a part of my big rig, captured by a Palmer Junction PDI-09, and then an attenuator to take the volume down as low as i want.

now, when i'm recording myself, i typically use my own cabinet as my guitar monitor, don't even put it thru the mix while tracking, and then i crank the ever mother lovin' peeese out of monitors with the mix coming through, and play like i'm jamming with a full band.

but

with the attenuator, i can take the volume of the amp down to nighttime bedroom volume, and either play the monitors very low, or go to the headphones.

i've never liked the results of sims, went thru several before i gave up on them, and much prefer the sound of a miced loud cab, but the attenuator and palmer is a WONDERFUL COMPROMISE, and the proof is in the recordings.

A DI is always useful for recording. If you want to go direct you can also try out guitar amp sims in VST form like AmpliTube 3 FREE.

That's all great advice. Hack, I've downloaded Acmebargig and it is a great free chunk of software. I've played a bit with it and it seems very user-friendly but I have a question: I will go DI into the Zoom R16 interface I have but when doing amp sim for things like solos, do you go in completely clean or should I put a little bit of edge on it prior to the amp sim. I only have a solid state FM 212r which may not give a good enough tubeishness (ya, it's a word) to get a good tone.

Thanks

al