@Boni
I know that stuff, I'm a self-taught audio engineer for well over 20 years now :-)

Even so, when it comes to guitar hardware units, I'm pretty clueless  Even now, I wouldn't know a Gibson from a Les Paul (I'm a synth man and I'm convinced the sound I'm after has more to do with the guitar itself - that's why I'm stumped).  Like most people into the engineering side of it, I was brought up mainly on DAW's (apart from early on and the last few years where I've been adding to my analogue gear so that I have a completely analogue system again - as well as the DAW (won't part with Cubase).

But you're spot-on regards post production making things harder to pin down.  It's like with the loudness war that's going on among incompetent engineers and studios right now (and has been for years) - it's just one big mush.  Funny thing is, it's a virtual guitar synth I bought that got me interested in the real distortion units the guitarists are using, and it's gone full circle since then, because now I don't want to use a virtual guitar synth, I want to put real analogue synths through real analogue distortion units (and master and record it all in analogue as well).  It's only the distortion units and the compressor I've got to get right now (and that can get seriously expensive), but at least then I'll have a complete system I'll be permanently happy with and can start on some completely analogue projects I have in mind - hopefully not too far into the future.

Anyway, I'd better shut up, people get bored with this stuff.
Boni? ... Boni? ... oh look she's asleep already :-P

@RorrKonn
I know what you mean, like I said though, change of plan now.  I just want the analogue distortion units to stick analogue synths through.  No point me kidding myself that I'd be any good at guitar, because I just don't have the same passion for guitars as I do for analogue synths.

But I do love guitars and really envy those who play them well.