I happen to have the same problem only the other way around, as a former drummer I tend to get into some percusive frases, changing time and a lot of muting strings to get just chug chug sound and play with that....but.... my problems is getting the other part (technique) going, getting a scale or progression sounding harmonical is my brick wall.

Still, having the sense of timing and using it as frasing sometimes (for me) is not enough... I wanna get something musical going on, not just the rythm frases.