Thank you Lynn. No, I don't mind the comparison at all. Actually, I've recently discovered an upper register that I haven't shared yet. I need more practice before I lay tracks with it. Singing along with Mars Volta songs on my way to work is really working out, ha ha!
Man, I'm not sure how to engineer that acoustic section you're talking about. There is so much going on there - a very busy bass line, 4 tracks of that harmonized muffled electric guitar plucky thingy, the background solo, the acoustic picking and then the telephone-vocal...I just have no idea how to get all that crammed together without it sounding like you said. Maybe it's too much...I think I'm too damn proud of those notes to sacrifice them by dropping them in the mix.
But...here's the real bummer...it's set it stone. My studio was robbed and I didn't back my stuff up soon enough so the only version of that song I have as a project file is so old I would have to re-record most of the material, and I just don't have it in me to do it. Thanks so much though, I do agree with ya on it.