That big, wide guitar sound

Hey folks-
Bare with me - I'm looking for the best way to get that big, wide guitar sound out of Logic. Here's an example of what I'm trying to achieve:
http://www.bedrock-studios.com/smashing.mp3
I'm curious if anyone can point out any useful techniques for getting that big sound that doesnt grate on the ears. Do they use stereo widening - to what degree?? What kind of EQ? Whenever i record, i can hear every strum, but listening to this you almost loose the strum and it becomes this collage of sound that's really beautiful. Do they play multiple takes simultaneously? What kinds of pickup settings? Whats the secret?
Yes, I know getting a mastering technician would be the best thing to do, or go read some fancy books by so-and-so and that it takes "years and years" of learning, and yes, i know it's all up to my ears. But there has to be at least one or two tried-and-true settings for getting started with a big guitar sound. I'm doing this for fun, but i get discouraged when i cant even get template settings to sound nice.
What about the guitar itself? Any recommendations for excellent "rock-style" pickups or strings? I've got a fender strat going through a m-audio firewire solo on a G5.
Thanks for the help... go easy. I just want to have fun.
Cheers,
Chris
Dual 1.8 GHz Powermac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Chris,
I agree with a lot of what Brent has said. Let me add to it...
Although it's public record that Billy Corgan does layer his guitars, in the clip you posted the link to, the "main" guitar, or main riff guitar, doesn't sound doubled (or tripled, etc...) to me. It does sound like it has been "stereo-ized". That can be done on many ways, but one popular way is to record your guitar part, pan it hard left, then send it to a delay, with the delay set anywhere from 60 ms to 150 ms, 100% wet, and the output of that delay panned hard right (or visa versa).
I like to this same thing with small room reverbs. It's not as pronounced as it is with a delay, but offers a sonic alternative.
Another technique used a lot is to record one guitar, through multiple amps. The mic placements on the amps alone, when panned around, can provide a HUGE stereo image, even though it's one guitar. You also get the benefits of having the amps set to various amounts of gain, so you can get a wide range of tones, all at the same time. You could emulate this, by copying your guitar track to several other tracks, each with a different Guitar Amp Pro, set to different settings, on each track. Maybe go as far as nudging them around in time, just a smidge, or a add more room reverb to one, while the others are dryer, etc... experiment!
You could certainly just play the part twice, and pan each track left and right. And while that sounds really cool (and has been done to death), it doesn't provide the same "focus" as a single part, played or mixed in stereo.
And while I agree that you'll never get out of Guitar Amp Pro what you can from a decent tube amp, it shouldn't stop you from trying. And what Brent said about rolling off Highs (and lows) is good practice with guitar amp simulators. A guitar speaker isn't capable of reproducing frequencies up high (like at 10 or 12k). get rid of them... those frequencies are only contributing to giving the amp simulator have a "fizzy" sound.
And don't lose the Strat... just try to get a Les Paul (or other Humbucker driven guitar) to add to your arsenal.
And never forget, a large part of a guitars sound (or any instrument for that matter), comes from the player...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C0F7eFxhXM&t=1m23s
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Firstly, what makes this sound? How is it made and how do you think it was recorded? To me, this sounds like a humbucker pickup so I'd guess a les Paul or maybe an SG type of guitar going into maybe a Marshall or an Orange type of amp. This is not a DI'ed sound so you're going to have trouble here if you only have DI's.
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Now we have the internet so lets look him up and see if we can track down what he uses or used on this record.
OK, looks like he used a custom Ibanez AX-120 with a Seymour Duncan JB Jnr pickup, so it is a high output humbucker and it also looks like he went through an Orange stack.
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That big, wide guitar sound

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