Hi Myles
I agree that these are questions of personal taste and requirements. However it's about 25 years since I last played guitar in a multi-style cover band, and more than 20 since I played guitar in a gigging band at all (or through an amp, come to that). I don't have recent personal experience to make informed choices. There are limits to what one can learn from testing equipment in music stores etc and I'm reconciled to my first purchases being more on the basis of research than personal preference.
I had already read your pieces on Line 6 in the world's best amps section, which is the main reason I posted the question here. I was very impressed by your knowledge of the subject, and also by your ability to keep an open mind and trust your ears in an area where prejudice often seems to get in the way of an objective response.
What you don't do in the pieces I have read is go into any detail about how modelling amps compare with one another (as opposed to tube amps), what kind of amplification you think works well with the Pod, and specifically whether you think the XT is a good live solution (although I've seen posts where you make positive reference to the XT as a guitarist's tool). If you have written on these specific topics I'd be most grateful if you could point me to where those pieces can be found.
Thanks.