no. it's....

when you're dealing with subtle shifts in tone, it's useful to focus on certain subtle aspects. there's a trill in this song at about 3:06 fairly high up on the e string. that's a relatively high frequency, in the way it intersects with the guitar effects. it's also the most important part of the song, in my view. it seems to come in and out of the mix. when i can hear it, i know things are well. when i can't, i know i'm losing some high end.

as mentioned, the point of this replacement was to clarify the tone. i could initially hear it through the bandcamp stream. now i can't. and now i'm consistently missing it through the mixer, too.

i'm really back at square one with no further leads.

:(