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Talking about clean amp sounds, the clean Fender sound has varied over the years. The original '50s tweed amps have a much more mid-forward sound than the later '60s blackface amps. Don't forget that the first Marshall amps were based on a tweed Fender Bassman circuit, with almost no change in the circuit. And the difference between a tweed and a blackface sound may only be 3dB in the mids, not a -12dB change from turning your mid control right down.
A clean guitar sound will always cut through a mix better than a distorted sound at the same volume. Distortion adds lots of extra harmonic content to the basic sound of a guitar, which pushes a lot of the energy in the sound into the higher frequency range, so for an equal energy sound level, the distorted sound is spread over a much wider frequency range, (even though the guitar speaker itself filters off a lot of the high-end sound), so theer is less energy in the mid-frequencies.
Also, look at the Fletcher-Munson/ISO 226 curves for human hearing responses (it also varies depending on the loudness of the sound):
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The human ear is most sensitive to sounds in the mid-range, and far less so to bass and treble frequencies. So if you scoop the mids, then you are reducing the frequencies that the ear hears best, so the overall volume has to come way up to compensate, which means the bass and treble are then far too loud.
These two videos best describe how not to get a good metal sound live (second one on next post as you can only include one video per post).
http://youtu.be/aYtXBUS_kwY
You'll probably find that the guitars on metal albums are EQd differently depending on how exposed they are in the mix. A guitar-only intro riff may well be quite scooped, whilst within a full-band context, the settings on both the amp and the mixing desk will be quite different.
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When I did my Diploma in audio engineering in the mid 80's we spent a lot of time on the 'tricks' used for that killer tone...
The one studio trick that springs to mind is to use two (or more) channels on the mixing desk for that difficult guitar sound. One channel to be set up and used for the verse and chorus section of the tune. The level, Eq and Fx set so it sat nice behind the vocals. The second channel (possibly/most likely on a different guitar amp) is set for the guitar solo to shine, with level, Fx and Eq optimized for those ever so few incredible moments. A Third channel might be used for that surreal guitar intro. Each channel was only used for its part in the song, and blending of any two or three channels was at the discretion of the producer/engineer. Then, repeat the process if you wanted stereo guitars, and repeat again for every other guitar in the mix.... and then the keys, and the bass, and the drums... and anyone else on stage....
With that thinking a 40ch desk fills up quite quick, and Fx racks multiply like rabbits.... Biggest live mix's I encountered back then with this thinking in mind was at Brisbane Qpac theatre which on one show used two 40ch Yamaha PM3000 consoles (each costing similar to a CBD apartment) which had 32 sub groups and controlled by combined/linked 16VCA fade controls, and was accompanied by five 19" racks standing 5' tall chockers full of EFx gear and a few smaller sub-mixers to re-integrate the outboard gear into the main mix....Some channels were only opened for less than a minute during the entire performance... (and for the life of me I can't remember who was playing.. It was a band though (one that I had nil interest in at the time), not a play or orchestra...)
With everything I've just said I will include that I remember there were a lot of noise gates in the racks of Fx, and a few A/B switches on the stage, and more amps than needed for a band that size.
Expo 88 also had big mix's with a 40ch and a 32ch FOH desks both used at once on certain shows though there were far fewer EFx racks. Typically most shows 'got by' on the River stage with only the 40ch and 1/2 a rack of Fx so I suspect most guitars only got one channel in the desk and had to manage their own tone and stompbox Fx.
So it can be done live as it was done in the studio... Ya just need the gear cos trying to do it all via one amp is probably the harder way ... and then also a sound engineer who knows what to do when...
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As a player from years gone by, I always had my amp - a Holden 100 valve combo - tone settings such that a fair amount of the bass signal was cut and the treble advanced just beyond the neutral mark so that the guitar would indeed cut through; I used the tone control on the guitar quite a bit! The first outboard FX I used, apart from reverb and echo, was a Boss 7 channel EQ stomper which I used to add some oomph to solos, intros, codas etc.
That said, I used to try and find my own "voice", as it were, tonally, though not with any great success as fashion in tone moved so much faster than I did! :-)
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I have no idea of what I'm doing but I run a compressor at the front of my signal, then that feeds an EQ pedal so the signal leaving there is my dry signal sounding the way I like it, from there it can go into drives ( I don't use much) and modualtions. My Egnator feeding a Jensen Falcon does a pretty good fender impersonation.
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A lot of it is finding out what works for you, and using your ears and letting them tell you what sounds good.
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Preferred tone is a very personal thing and having used Marshall & Vox amps for guitars I love their inherent upper mid grunt compared to some of the yankee stuff. Heaven for me is plenty of mid range through a 4x12 closed back cabinet.
As others have said, if playing live what you are hearing on stage may not be what the mixing guys do out front, particularly if overall sound is quite loud.
