The guitar player in my cover band has an AxeFX. It really is an amazing unit. The sounds are drop-dead awesome! BUT...he still lugs a lot of gear. The AxeFX is in a rack with a few other items. Then there's the head he uses for power (a Guytron) and a Mesa cab. Plus a giant control pedal board. Now, he's trying to program it to be a stand-alone piece to run through the PA, but he programs it at home and then it sounds WAY different when it's actually running through the PA. All in all, the AxeFX is amazing, but it requires a lot of time to get "right".