I havent played with it out in the real world yet PJ, only by myself, and at practice in my jamroom and that is nowhere near a live setting, but like you said --meh, I could deal with trying to get a good cut thru the band sound out of it, but I can't do that UNLESS I'm on the stage with the band, and who can say "WHOA let me readjust this and that" 2 minutes into our first song.
I pretty much only bought it to protect my exclusive reputation from "Addison" here.
it was cheap
honestly it is a nice preamp and the tone that closely resembles my other setup is just using it on the "tube preamp" setting because if all the amp modeling is even remotely what other amps sound like, I'll pass. ( with the amp models you STILL have to adjust the EQ controls, and ya some sound too tinny, some have no mids, some are gritty some are clean ) -- too much craziness for me.