Well it's a balance of everything. Even botique amps and pedals will not blend nicely if used in the wrong way, there's always a sweet spot around those knobs even on the cheapest gear. But to answer your question id core and peavey's rage sits nicely with some fx in front. The not so friendly vibe that modelling amps gets sometimes is because of people disregarding the modelling nature of the amp in the first place, they try to blend a differently voiced pre amp with the amps modelled voicing,then the pedal settng itself,some pedals are meant to be on the fx loop yet people put it in front of the lead channel and expect it to sound clean. Too many factorrs to consider yet it will still boil down to what sound your aiming for,might as well try stuff first.
