Help!! Hollow-Bodies vs. Solid Bodies??? Anybody???

i bought a cheap starter guitar like everybody does, and began playing constantly. after the initial wood-shedding of learning a new instrument, i hopped on youtube and used everybody's free lessons for a few months.

i joined my favorite band less than a year ago. awesome...and not so awesome. they sounded really polished and clean before, but my first rehearsal with them didn't go so well because my guitar was shittles.

i went out and bought a gig worthy guitar as soon as i could. it happens to be a hollow-bodied guitar, which is really freakin' cool in my opinion, but it may not be as appropriate as i though it would be.

problems flared up because i'm playing through a mesa dual rectifier, which is an amp that i can really only describe as 100 watts of a metal head's wet dream. feedback is a SERIOUS problem onstage when i start pushing this amp harder, especially in smaller venues when i've got to stand closer to my cab.

does anybody know if a pickup switch might help?? i don't want to buy a new guitar yet, i like this one, but...am i going to half to mod my baby??