Problems recording electric guitar in Garageband

I'm fairly new to using Garageband. I have Garageband 09 on my Macbook Pro. I'm playing a Fender Telecaster and a Stratocaster and am going through an Edirol (USB) interface and using Guitar Rig 4 plugins for amp modeling.
I'm running into a few problems that I don't understand how to solve and am hoping someone can offer some help or advice.
First, when going through the Edirol, I notice that the Recording Level setting on the Track Info pane on the far right of the screen is not active. I'm assuming the Edirol interface is over-riding this. Is that normal when using an interface?
I use the input level knob on the Edirol to control the volume when I record (because the Recording Level is not active) and I keep it fairly low (about level 3). When I record the track using a clean guitar sound I watch the meter on the track pane on the left side of the arrange window. I adjust the settings so it never goes into red, and I watch to make sure it doesn't.
Then when I play back what I've recorded, it jumps into the red in a few spots.
I'm baffled by that. Is there any explanation and fix for this?
Also, the recording of the song (with drum loops and vocals on it) has some clicks or sounds like a scratchy phonograph needle. I thought it might be the sound breaking up from distortion, but they don't always correspond to when the meters hit the red zone.
What are these sounds, why are they appearing and how can I avoid/get rid of them?
Lastly, just about every amp setting using Guitar Rig 4 and Garageband's own amp models that have distortion (I use distortion on lead parts at times) have a terrible level of hiss and noise.
I've tried using the noise gate to get rid of it, but, while it silences the hiss and noise when you're not actually playing anything, the hiss is still very present when you are.
Also, if the noise gate is set too high, it kills any sustain. And the hiss is still there anyway when playing, although it's a bit less.
Is there some explanation for this, and any solutions? How can I get rid of this noise/hiss and still have a great sounding lead with sustain?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any help.

First, when going through the Edirol, I notice that the Recording Level setting on the Track Info pane on the far right of the screen is not active. I'm assuming the Edirol interface is over-riding this. Is that normal when using an interface?
Yes, that's how it works!
When I record the track using a clean guitar sound I watch the meter on the track pane on the left side of the arrange window. I adjust the settings so it never goes into red, and I watch to make sure it doesn't.
It's perfectly fine for the recording level to go into the read, actually that's what you want. Just make sure it never clips (the two little dots at the end of the meter scale lighting up).
Then when I play back what I've recorded, it jumps into the red in a few spots.
I'm baffled by that. Is there any explanation and fix for this?
Recording level and playback level are two different things. The latter depends on how you set your track's volume. Turn it down if it clips (again, red is fine.)
Maybe other people can comment on your distortion problems!

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