Originally posted by Nash
Line 6 guitars are very nifty. Suggest you look into them.
I have a Variax that I use exclusively. It faithfully emulates almost 30 different stringed instruments-everything from a Les Paul to a Strat to a Gibson 12 string acoustic to a banjo to a sitar, but it still needs to be plugged into an amplification source. Actually, to do it right you need two amplification sources: A guitar amp for the electric models, and an acoustic amp or PA system for the acoustic models with an A/B switch to choose between the two.
I also use a Line6 Flextone amp. It will emulate the sound of a bunch of classic amps. My favorites are the Fender black panel, the Marshall plexi, and the Vox ac30. I use these models for my clean, lead, and crunch channels respectively. It also has effects built in (reverb, delay, chorus, flange, wah, lesli, tremolo). I use no stomp boxes; I plug directly into the amp.
Between the Variax and the Flextone, there is virtually no guitar sound that I can't get.