Lightning,
I feel you man.
Let me talk about my problemsl maybe you or somebody else can help me (or us both).
I am using either my peavey classic 30 or marshall JCM2000 DSL210 (combo) in my band, playing originals. We pretty much fancy early seventies classic rock. The other guitar player is using strats and teles, and generally in ABB sounding tunes, I take the lead.
With my band I am using the JCM2000, because the other player is into strats and teles. That makes me take up the mids in the tonal spectrum, and vaguely speaking not use clean tones in principle. With my R7 we are doing great bluesbreaking stuff, no problem there. The problem starts when I need to have more drive.
R7 through this rig sounds beautiful (with antiquities) when my tone is not that dirty. But often I need to have a tone with more gain as well. Then the R7 does not have enough edge, does not scream! It does great oooooo but not eeeee.

I guess I need to stop postponing the alnico 5 magnet swap. Otherwise I am cool with the pickup. I have a feeling that after the alnico 5 magnet swap, I would get closer to Duane's tones. In my first magnet swap triumph. I changed the alnico 2 of my CC to an alnico 5. I did not like it, but at least that showed me it might produce a great result with my antiquity bridge on my R7. What do you guys say?
With the studio, I was doing heavier beefier stuff. It sounds like a dream through the peavey. But with the marshall, the highs simply are not enough. The tone is throaty, great growl, and sophisticated. I just need less of everything it has but a little more highs and more openess. This is why you people made me interested in Fillmores. Honestly, all that cult dudes over the les paul forum turned me off when I was shopping for my R7 to replace the 57classics. Anyway, maybe Fillmores is the way to go for my LP studio.
I did not use JB or DD, but over the last week I ABed the C5 I created out of my Custom Custom. I can tell you that it is not Duane, it does not have the solid mids that I hear on the Fillmore East Concerts. Just my humble opinion. I think Custom Custom though not perfect does better Duane.
It looks like I would have to go though the SD Custom Shop or WCR. I need a bucker that is cooler than CustomCustom, hence brighter, more open, and with more edge. At the same time I don't want to sacrifice the solid mids it has that much.