I noticed though, boosting the air band 10k or wherever that nice pick attack is while reducing 1-5khz reduces harshness but increases brightness while conveniently clearing space for the lead instrument/vocal. A lot of old analogue EQ's do this by design upon thought (maybe for a good reason!). That guys advice was spot on. That extra brightness/air was more important than I thought.
I have been beating my head up the wall for a while on this subject. I am getting closer to working it out and when I do, I will get back to you on it!
It's so time consuming working this stuff out so if i can save you a bit of time I will.