Re: Tightness
For the real tight, percussive fast runs, nothing but practice can help you with that. I'd highly recommend recording your progressive to review every 3 months or so, and slow it down to really analyze every hit, and re-record until you get it right.
For getting rid of excess noise, and clearness of notes, that's also alot of practice, but also technique. Mute the strings with both your left and right hands. When I'm doing legato lines, it's gotten to the point where my right hand is muting almost every string but the one being played on. That also comes into play on the faster, picked runs, too.
Come to think of it; just to show how I mute those top strings when I'm doing leads: When I'm really getting into it, often the round bit of my palm near my thumb is pushing the low E so it's actually in contact with the top edge of the bridge pickup.