that's the bottom line, to me. There's so much gear out there these days, and you can get just about anything to work for you.

In the studio, my favs were Mesa Dual Rectifier for crunch tones, and Fender or Vox for clean.

For me, it was always the toss-up between rack gear sounding too '80's-ish' or pedals introducing too much noise or sounding low-tech. I think you can work with either issue and find your tone; gear tends to be a very personal issue. I have my preferences, but these days my public opinion is "Whatever works for you/gets you your tone."

Gear = your tools. As long as you're using professional quality tools, you should be OK.

and when you're talking gigging gear, it's important to consider that the tone is coming from the gear but the VOLUME will come from the PA- you're not trying to cover the whole room with your amp.