You could try playing a more sparse, held back riff to accentuate the lead bits, gives it more drama!
A preamp or eq pedal can boost your signal or tone a bit when you want.
The mighty Boss LS-2 can have a loop with clean gain boost or cut, which also works if you want to blend your clean signal with effects that eat low end, like many overdrive and distortion do.
If all else fails the guitar could use a looper to keep his riff going while he goes off.
Still get a LS-2 though!