After being a gigantic ToneLab advocate for a long time, then trying the Variax/PodXTLive setup and really liking both, I have to confess there is more out there in all ways.
Having bought the Variax at Guitar Center, then trading the ToneLab back in for the Pod XT Live and all the super things it could do with Variax, I kinda erased the flash in the Variax while trying to make it work with Variax Workbench.
Had wanted to try a Roland VG-88 for a year but they had never had one. This time they did. Having found that Line 6 has actually no tech support at all I gave the Pod/Variax idea up quickly.
The VG-88 is absolutely incredible. It does things niether of the others could even hope to do. The 12 strings and nylons on the VG are years beyond Variax, as is everything else.
Another great plus is that instead of using the cheap Variax 300 guitar and neck or paying 1300 for a Variax 700 to have something fairly decent I added nondestructively a GK-3A pickup to my American Deluxe Strat!
This setup is incredible. And on the cost side, the VG-88 and GK-3A cost is the same as the cost of a Variax 300 and the Pod XT Live it takes to make it function well enough.
Just add your favorite playing guitar. And by the way, you can mix the VG sounds with the sounds of the Strat quite nicely and use the VG effects on it as well.
Roland was there years ago, and the VG-88 Version 2 is a great progression on the long ago invented wheel.

Tom