Interesting. To me, it's even simpler than  that, and X3Ls and GT-10s and Axes all hit and miss the mark at the same time.

In the early sixties, you had no choice except for some variants of clean amps, primarily Fender and Gibson. Since I'm not British, I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing Vox was pretty much it. Marshall didn't come around as a force until later in the 60s.

The first two years of gigs that I did were with the Gibson variant (don't remember the model - 2x10", reverb is all I know), after which I bought a VOX distortion booster which had an on/off switch and plugged directly into the guitar (I still have it, and like it). Later I bought a Fender Twin, not because I thought it sounded better, but because it had more power, and didn't break up until the volume got extremely high (still laughing about the fact that later I had to go by smaller amps so I could get that breakup and not go deaf).

So, your tone options were your

a) on your guitar - pickup switch, volume and tone controls

b) on your amp - volume, bass, treble (maybe mid, depending on the amp) and reverb. Sometimes vibrato or tremolo.

c) one external stomp, which was always a distortion variant back then. Even the revered tube screamer was unheard of.

One hell of a lot of very good music was performed that way, and modern modelling has turned a lot of people into tone snobs whose audience's can't possibly notice the differences in the gear they're playing. Honestly, all you need is an approximation, because that's all there ever really was - approximations. Still, the tonal variations, even with those simple rigs were endless.

Now, we've got people claiming they actually need this or that specific amp for this or that specific song or application. I'm certainly in the minority, but I think this is nonsense. You find a model you like, and modify it with the appropriate effects you want, and you've done all you need. I really don't care what kind of modeler is producing the tone, and I guarantee you the audience doesn't either. They wouldn't know the difference between Line 6, Rocktron, Axe, Boss, Zoom or Digitech. I've heard really good guitarists play and sound great through all of these offerings.

Too many golden ears, and not enough players.

I think you misunderstood my post. I've used modeling since 1999, with two upgrades since. In their current incarnation, any modeler can do the job, and off duty musicians can't hear it, either. If I had a nickel for the times they've come up to me and said "I can't believe you can do that with just a box", I wouldn't be rich, but I'd have a lot of nickels, that's for sure.

I don't shun the advancement at all, but I use it as a minimalist for a few basic sounds. Our entire set list (see www.midrockcrisis.com, the "songs" tab) is played with four patches. Since I've gone to this approach (I use to try and "nail" tones), I play more, tweak less, and have gotten far more in the way of complements from off duty musicians than in the years I tried to "nail it."

It's all about the playing. I believe it was Steve Howe who said "If it doesn't sound good on the clean channel, it won't sound good." That is a great guitarist philosophy.

So... you're right and that's all there is to it? Not much to discuss then. Have a great weekend.

Sure what you mention is a difference.  I would say just one of the many differences and not the "main" difference.  Sure you can get a ton of advanced parameters in both amps, fx, etc but you don't have in order to decent sounds.   Each thing has a main page where the basic dials are there and the advanced pages are at proper defaults that would impose the same practical boundaries you mention if you choose to leave them alone. 

Let's skip the whole opinion part of which sounds better and stick to how they work.

I think a more significant difference is routing.  With L6 you are stuck with a serial connection point A to B and basically no flexibility.  This is not true with grid system in the Axe-Fx.   You can certainly lay down L6 serial paths if you want or you may choose again to think outside the pod and go with parallel routing or try something completely insane.

It all just a matter of preference... how they work as well as how they sound as well as other factors.

And with today's technology, it is absolutely AMAZING what you can find out there in terms of OD and distortion stomps.  Some of the higher quality ones offer tones that can rival the sound produced by overdriven tube amps.  Some players even prefer them over the real thing.  And the deal is, they sound great.

For example, I have a Fulltone OCD and an MI Audio Crunch Box that do that Marshall thing in varying degrees when played in front of any decent clean tube amp.  At low volume.  Convincingly.  I will not sell these pedals.  They are awesome alternatives.

For a great example of how some great players use stomps, you need to check out Blues Saraceno.  He often uses pedals in front of old, clean tube amps for recording sessions:

My point being, like nuser's, is that you can get great sounds out of a really simple setup.

I haven't read up much on the Axe-FX because it is pretty much beyond my budget, but I have always wondered why Line6 doesn't offer much flexibility in programming when compared to the Boss products. I guess they focused their efforts on more flexibility in connectivity. So, each has its own strengths and weaknesses, but comparing a $500 box to a $2000 box is really a futile exercise, isn't it?

BTW - As entertaining as that other thread is (with over 49,000 views and over 350 post) I have a slow computer and it pretty much locks up whenever I try to view that thread