As for me, this video shows that using good guitar pre + softwear is much cheaper (
) and souds better (?), if you don't need different hi-q effects swiching in real time, of course.
Besides, Mark, what can you say about using pre + softwear swiching by MIDI in real time? can it be an alternative to AXE?
As for me, it souds MUCH better and more flexible, then POD (unfortunately i don't try AXE), regardles some problems with routing...