A late view.
I'm utterly indifferent.
I like tube sounds, and to my ear digital modellers aren't there yet. You don't tend to get the same overtones as out of the real thing. But it's getting harder and harder to hear the differences, and pretty soon I'm sure they won't exist at all.
But for the same reason I'd rather see a keyboardist at a grand piano than at a synth no matter how good the piano sample, I'll tend to stay away from these -- there's just something pure about the real thing.
For folks that like them, great. Have fun!
For me, I almost never play with effects anyway -- I plug straight into my amp, at most adding a tiny bit of compression, and just let the amp do the amp's thing. *Shrug* maybe if I played more music that demanded distortion I'd feel different, but to me, all the processors in the world don't really answer the question "can the guy play?"
But then I think that Eric Johnson's clean sound is one of the best sounding rigs out there . . .so maybe I'm just the wrong guy to ask :)
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
