[arktan]

@mike

I mastered this thing and all i can say: It's pretty cool. I could tweak it untill i had the few tones in my head actually in this thing. That was pretty amazing!
Right now i'm pretty happy that i bought it. If you want it to record stuff at home it's damn great if you install Line6 monkey and the rest of the software. You can even sit at your comp and tweak the tones there (pretty usefull if you have 2 monitors so you can run your recording app and the settings of the pod simultaneously -> you don't have to put it in front of you and bow down to tweak it......). You can record via usb and via a line in on your soundcard so there are a lot of possibilities and i damn like the dual tone.
The only test this thing needs to pass is on gigs. But untill i'm used to it that much and all my tones from my old boss are on it it'll take again a few weeks.
Hope this was helpful...

@petereanima

here's the pod family Line 6 - POD Family (they're listed almost at the top of the page)
I wouldn't recommend you to buy a podxt, pod2, pocketpod or a pod xt pro. I would recommend the Pod X3 Live if you want it as a backup for gigs since the Pod X3 is a bean-shaped thing that you can use only with your hands...
There's also good stuff at boss's site BOSS U.S. - Multi Effects

The best thing you could do is to go in a nearby music store where they let you test some of these...
There is also a lot of other gear but i think that someone here on the forums will chime in to widen your possibilities