hot in herrre

I was wondering if anyone had a work around concerning audio levels when recording directly throught he mic in with an instrument? In my case I'm using a fender P bass and a Gibson SG, both instruments require me to have their respective pick up volumes set to below 0ne out of a possible 10 in order to avert digital feedback or high gain noise through the headphones. I've tried adjusting the gain on the mic levels and the gain on the phone levels as well as playing around with the master fader but to no avail. is this normal? Will a Direct Box allow me to play with more pick up volume without the distortion or do I simply need to keep the volume pots on my respective guitars set at zero to one?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.....
Thanks