New to Racks Point Me in the Right Direction

[holden_caufield9]

I've recently caught the bug and wanted to get a rack setup because I've found how much I love the sound of 2 differently EQ'd amps together. I currently run a Jet City JCA100HDM and a Marshall Studio 15 with an ABY box set to the "Y" position all the time. The Jet city is really dark and the Marshall has high mids so it gives a really nice thick tone that fills the whole spectrum. I run all time based effects through the Jet City and set both amps to a mild crunch. If I want clean, I use the volume knob on the guitar, if I want more boost I use stomp boxes and/or channel 2 of the Jet City.

This is going to be too much to lug around and it involves quite a bit of tap dancing. I'm thinking of getting a Line6 PodHD Pro and using a Carvin 2 channel power amp. The dual tones panned left and right respectively to create 2 separate amps in one rack. I'd then run each power amp channel to my stereo 2x12. All patches would be changed with Line6 FBV.

This would be a pretty easy setup to start with and I would have a huge amount of versatility along with the ease of use when recording practices/demos. My only concern is that I've always been kind of a tube snob. Would it be better for me to get 2 tube preamps and a multi effects unit? If I do this, will I be able to use some kind of MIDI unit to change patches on the effects unit and the channels on the preamps at the same time?

Outside of the Line6 setup, I'm just not sure where to look to get my preamp options. For reference, I'm in a 3 piece cover band that plays everything from Rush to Pink Floyd to CCR. We try to be able to play everything rock so I need a very versatile tone. Most of the time, I'm just trying to cop a good Warren Haynes tone though.

[bvester]

These days, Axe-Fx Standards and Ultras are going for really reasonable prices. I saw a Standard go for $850 the other day. In my opinion, there is no justification for the Line 6 when these are options. You won't miss your tube pre. The power section is really the crux of where you'll see the difference, although some new SS options are coming onto the scene that many people find perform just as well (i.e. Retro Channel, Matrix).

A Standard into a Carvin TS100 would be an awesome, awesome rig. Very easy to configure for one amp on each channel of the Carvin.