I had an upgraded VG8 for a while. Here's my take on it:
1) I had several really sweet guitars, but only one GK2 pickup, so I felt like I spent a lot of time neglecting lots of my guitars because I didn't want to install the special pickup on them.
2) I used the VG8 for recording with pretty good results. I tried to use it for practice & live, but never like the way it sounded running through a guitar amp. I'm sure it would've sounded better running through a
power amp, but I didn't have one at the time and had already spent enough $ on the VG8. Running the VG8 into a mixing board, although possible, seemed pretty weak in a live environment. There's nothing like having a real amp on stage with you, regardless of whether it's tube or solid state.
3) The VG8 has mind-boggling amounts of flexibility, but realistically, having the ability to virtually position a pickup in the middle of the neck isn't incredibly useful.
Personally, I think you could save some $ and probably end up with better tones by buying a good modeling amp. Sure, modeling amps don't provide the guitar modeling capabilities, but it's usually the amps that have a bigger effect on your overall sound than the guitars. I sold my VG8 and a ton of other preamp/effects gear to buy a Johnson JM150 and I've never looked back.
Hope this helps some!
--B
