OK, I didn't set out to prove any points--I was curious to see how they would sound to people and also to myself. Frankly, I'm really surprised at the result and it looks like I did prove a point inadvertently. So here's what they are:

1--Chambered R9 a/k/a "Cloud 9" with stock pups.
2--R8 with WCR Goodwood.
3--"Bob Burst" LP Replica with "Bob"s own pups.
5--"G0"--a/k/a Guitar Center R0 with Sheptone AB pup.

And the clear winner, to my surprise, is . . . .

4--PRS SC245

Yup, despite all the threads I've read, including a couple that are up right now, saying that "a PRS will never sound like a LP" the PRS was the runaway winner, with the next highest result being "they all sound the same."

I promise that I didn't do anything differently with the PRS. I ran everything straight to computer through an Axe-Fx II, same stock patch ("Friedman BE"), same settings. And, again, I didn't set out to show the PRS could sound like an LP, I just threw it in there.

Now obviously, this was not a super scientific test. People were listening to (high quality) mp3's through computer speakers. But it's interesting, no? Also interesting that while there were some people who didn't dig the tone or the EQ, nobody said "hey, that's no amp, that's a modeler."

Gotta go to bed now, but I've gigged with all these guitars and I'll give my "in the room" and live impressions of them (which differed in some cases from what people were saying about them in this thread).

Again, thanks for playing.