I recall when I first was introduced to RLT and TNT I was impressed how much Ronni was using guitar synth in his writing on Intuition/Tell No Tales.

It can really thicken up the guitar tone.
I dreamed of having a Floydrose piezo midi guitar years ago and soon I will have one (an Ibanez RG1520g-bk)

I bought a VG-88 and that wonder box is amazing at creating virtual tones. With one guitar I have various guitar tones, tele, strat, LP, 335, Rickenbacker, Gretch, Dan Electro, open tunings, B bender, acoustic & dist (by using my GT-8 ) Some of the cosm are just ok, i.e, 12 string and classical. Luckily I have three real acoustics to record with when needed. The VG-88 isn't a guitar synth, rather it responds to string vibrations so all harmonics and nuances remain.

My old GR-1 guitar synth will be sold as I get either the Axon AX100 mkII midi guitar system or a Roland GR-33.

In the DAW world of recording I often record my guitar to stereo audio tracks and simultaneously record the midi info to a midi track, this opens up vast possibilities but often requires hours of editing and tweaking to get things sounding spot on.

I currently use Cubase vst 5.2, it's MTC sync'd by a Yamaha AW4416. The AW4416 is great because I can punch in/out with a foot-switch and record up to 16 tracks at once.

I don't have a midi guitar, but frequently find myself intrigued by the possibilities of those new wonders. I've often thought that DSP technology should be possible to use to process the signals from the strings, and it can then emulate the body of the guitar. This application of technology I think is in its infancy. The quality will be better, and options will increase.

I'm using a Line6 UX2 with the triple-pack and power pack (makes it into a PodXT sound and amp-wise). I always record guitar both wet and dry. Because I don't have the Line6 VST plugin (It's another 200USD), I cannot reamp using the UX2, but I can use the dry signal through various other plugins I have. AudioEase's Speakerphone comes to mind as one I use often. It has heaps of superb amp simulators. Of course, if I can't make the right sound, I adjust the sound and retake. It's often faster than fiddling with things in software. Much as I love "tweak and re-listen" looping, I find myself out of time far too often.

I record directly to harddisk using Cubase 3sx, and my UX2 only deals with two simultanious inputs, but that's more than enough for me. My wife tells me I'm incapable of doing two things as he same time...

PeSt

Oh my goodness that all sounds complicated.

I just play straight through the POD xt into the line in on the PC and use Cakewalk Music creator 3 that I got for about £25-00 on Amazon when they did a deal.

I am Mr basic!! Although I do program drums and bass in midi. I plot the notes and beats out from scratch.
I have a midi out to an external drum machine that I use because it sounds better. I then have an audio out from the drum machine to the auxiliary in on the sound card.

Actually perhaps I'm not so basic!!!

Its all good phone isn't it!!

Shred

A couple of moons ago I bought myself a secondhand Roland GR-33, and a GK3 pickup. It did not cost me much, and the gear is in mint condition, with manuals, all cables and so on.

I have tried this for a while, and I'm not really sure what I think. Some sounds sounds OK, other sounds should be played by keyboard players..

Simple flutelike sounds are quite fun to work with, I think. Brass and woodwinds are quite awful. The same goes for all kinds of "non- pitchable" keyboard- sounds, and of course- the guitarsounds are quite useless.

Now, it's nice to be able to play parts via MIDI that my stiff fingers can't do on a keyboard- it's no problem to use the guitarsynth as a MIDI- controller, and then control a softsynth. I will try that route a bit more in the future.

I found the brass sounds are good for a few select songs like Extreme's "Get The Funk Out" and Lynch Mobs "Tangled In A Web" of course you need to also use an expression pedal controlling the volume to bring the synth in & out.
Bass sounds are amazing on a guitar synth and when used with your guitar tone you can get some crazy Dream Theater type unisons or Rush stuff.

With the VG-88 you can have each string panned so the sounds surround you or bounce all over the stereo field.

Midi guitar can get complicated when you realize you're only limitation is your imagination, i.e, triggering a sampler's drum program and assigning different samples to each string and fret. I know for fact Alanis Morissette's "Hand In My Pocket" was inspired by a drum preset from the GR-1. You start strumming the simple chords and the rhythm builds very similar to the song (of course they didn't use this sound beyond the demo stage)

I use the VG-99 and GR-09 for my digital setup, and I luuuuv it!

I also have an analog setup with a JC-120 and a fine selection of BOSS pedals.

I used the VG-88 for several years, but the VG-99 really kicks ass...

I've never goofed with the Roland guitar synth gear, but they look (and sound) like fun. I'm just pedals and amp or pedals and preamp to Roland V-studio kinda guy. But I'm learning the computer recording stuff, if that's worth anything.

Wow, lots of new gear since this post. I did buy a GR-33 guitar synth and that Ibanez RG1520. I installed GK-2A's on my steel string acoustic and a Squire hot rails strat.

Been using a PC since last December so my programs for music have come a long way.
Cubase SX3
Nuendo 3
Melodyne
ProTools TDM 6.7
...
The guitar synths are great for many tones but I discovered there is no replacing certain sounds like a real fretless bass, a classical, a 12 string.

Tone wise the Roland gear samples are ok but no where as awesome as the sounds from my Kurzweil K2500xs synth.