My problem with Guitar Rig is that there are just way too many wacky effect presets which devour my time in 3 hour chunks. Case in point. Granular Sparkle. I can sit and play with that one, in absolute bliss, for the whole evening. However I don't think I'd ever use it in a song. 

I think with Guitar Rig the newer amps like Hot Solo and Rammstein sound better than the older ones. It is possible to get a killer sound with it, but I find it takes a lot more tweaking than with Amplitube or TH2. 

Now that I have used TH2 a bit, i am liking it. I am using sounds in each. I have notices that Guitar Rig seems to require more resources than TH2. I get pops and cracks if on some presets (increase buffer size and it goes away). Never had this with TH2. Maybe just my setup. I just purchased the Mark Studio bass version, and so far it is cool, wish it had more presets. But hey, I always wish things had more presets. I agree with Sharke, some of the sounds in GR and TH2 are so cool, I jam with them for quite a while, yet never actually used them in a tune. Still fun.

Something to mention to rsinger: I "reamped" a guitar track and compared to GR.  I had recorded a couple ryth guitars for a tune while using GR5. I was curious to compare the GR to a live amp, so I sent the dry signal out on seperate bus, miked up an amp (sm57) and re-recorded thru a peavey valveking. Split GR hard left, live amp hard right.  When I listen to the song, i could not tell which was a live amp and which was GR. very sublte differences.

I think it's all good...Amplitude, GR, TH2...if you're using it and enjoying the results. TBH though sometimes I think all these virtual gear boxes are a distraction. When I was a boy (LOL) buying an amp took a couple years of savings so I made my choices very carefully. Now I have a tendency to think: $100 bucks, no biggie, hit the Download Now button and off I go...

I've GR5 and S-Gear 2 (from Scuffham) and the Scuffham stuff has become my goto. I still use the effects in GR5 though. Haven't even had time to play around with TH2 yet. Not sure that I will actually because it seems to me that at a certain point I just give up on gear and go with what I am familiar with... Particularly when I'm satisfied with what I'm getting out of the gear.

Regards,

I have "never can have too much gear or software" disease. Symptoms include fun discovery, with a twinge of frustration and a credit card bill.