Ya it's a favorite trick of mine to get a song all fleshed out with 4 guitar parts etc and start turning things OFF.
We tend to get attached after all the time we put into creating those different parts so it's hard to nuke them.
I often try different guitars , capo, open tuning, and sometimes I turn them down but later I find if I Mute them the song becomes cleaner and more focused on the best parts.