The VG strat is discontinued and the Gibson Dark Fire still hasn't arrived (as far as I know). Whither the high-tech guitar?

Jimi, a friend has a Variax she bought used. She gets a great acoustic tone on stage and got it cheaper (and with less heartache) than fitting a better pickup to her nice Daion parlour. They have their uses but maybe they're not the replacement for a "fleet" that their manufacturers would have us believe. Likewise the single to humbucker and humbucker to single settings that all modelers seem to include.

Guitars have pickup switches and tone controls for a reason. At last week's jam I covered UB40 to Nirvana tones using a tele with 4-way switch and a two channel amp. I like simple.