I would agree; I ended up selling mine on after percervering with it. The cleans were great, I liked the smaller form factor. But the drive tones were a bit weedy and I thought the fact that in order to run stereo you had to jack out from the front was just stupid too! I could forgive all of that if the metal tones were there, but they just weren't.
If a modeller is what you need, then I would go either PodHD or Snax if you can swing it. I've also been through the Axe. Not to turn this into a snax vs Pod debate, but I just didn't see the extra £1500 of value in the snax. Thus I kept the HD500 and it's done me sweet since I bought it (got it when they first came out). There are some usability things I've never liked with the Pod, but you can learn to live with those. Between the pod and the 11R, I'd go Pod instantly!
As for powering, you can either go for a Tech 21 power engine (it's pretty good akshully!). Or get a used valve power amp. Although most London rehearsal spots have gear to provide, it's always fairly old and beat up and you can also count on the wiring being slightly dodgy too! Though most offer some sort of weekly gear storage if you need it.
Given what you say, if you are definitely on public transport too, then I would wager your best bet is find a 1U preamp (Rocktron, Sansamp) and a solid-state power amp, or a Marshall 1U 20w. After that, you only need to worry about there being a guitar cabinet around. I've had a Voodu Valve for many years and I can never bring myself to sell it. It's no way as intuitive as a PodHD, 11R or snax, but it's small, light and it sounds right pissed off if you need it to! The MIDI Mate will also neatly fit into a 3U rack too, so it's all nicely stored as one unit.
From my own experience, anytime London is on the cards, I've found my best grab and go piece is my Peavey 6505 212 combo. The tones are there with minimum fuss, setup and take down time is quick and it's small enough to keep even the most bitter soundguy happy. Although I see modellers have really come along, I still like the intuitive hands-on approach of a real amp, rather than fecking around with buttons, menus and dials minutes before a show. I find I only ever really need three sounds anyway. Solo, crunch and about 17 seconds of clean tone saturated with modulation effects
Hahahaha.
Also, I hate to say it, but London isn't as metal as it used to be. I'd loved to be proved wrong and I hope you find what you're after! The last few London bands I tried out for had several things in common: guitarists with no gear, drummers who couldn't drum and didn't have a kit, vocalists who turned up late and someone's girlfriend on bass whose only credentials were black miniskirts. Add into that mountainous egos and despite [big head] being the only person in the room who actually learned an instrument [/big head], felt they could dictate actions, working schedule... urgh, pass!
If I'm honest, the UK is a bit rubbish full stop unless you're oop North where it's cold and the women are stronger than the average bloke! I've had several great trips to Nottingham, Sheffield, etc. Although Camden is metal central, wading through the fake crap and bullshit promoters, or even finding a decent local band to see seems to be a lot harder nowadays.
On the other side of that, there's always Europe?
