I think its funny that earlier you were saying this, but now you are looking at guitars that have tons of sound modeling built into them.

LOL, I am going down a different road aren't I. See, I have an open mind: my point of view can change in only a matter of hours!

FWIW, my feelings of wanting simplicity was the reason I was resistant toward the "guitar modeling" approach. It was also the reason I was resistant toward getting a POD. However, that was one of the best purchases I've ever made, so I thought I'd at least explore this a bit. And simplicity is still the name of the game: In a perfect world I'd have to carry at least four guitars on stange with me: A "rock" electric, a "texturing" electric, my primary acoustic, and my tuned down acoustic. Add this to my rythem guitarists acoustic and electric and you've got quite a bit on stage. Looks impressive but quite a pain when switiching between songs. If I could eliminate a few guitars by adding knobs, I'm willing to make a sacrifice.

The bottom line, though, is that I have no idea what I want, just glimmers of insight at various times! I keep thinking "wouldn't it be cool if . . ." and then realizing that that would mean a tradeoff somwhere else. After exploring all the options perhaps I'll figure out what things are really important to me and be able to make an informed purchase.

As far as tone control, I think I'd like one extreme or the other: give me complete control or no control at all. I'd rather either not have to worry about it or be able to get exactly what I'm looking for. The middle is having to worry about it and not being able to get the result I want.