All good advice on here.

In your original post you hit on the classic issue which faces all recording enthusiasts. How do I get that ‘great sound’ to sound right in the mix? I’m sure we’ve all found a nice sound on a keyboard and thought I want to use that, but then realise that it will need to be shaped in some way (usually EQ) to enable it to work.

There are many ways to build up a mix but what I would suggest is to decide what are the most important features of your recording (e.g vocal and guitar) get those right and then bring the other instruments in one by one and check how they effect the overall sound.