Best approach to record electric guitar?

[nedorama]

best of both worlds:

Put a good DI (a la Radial JDI or their Pro DI) in front of your amp. Record the DI signal as well as a mic or 2 on the amp.

that way, you have a great mic'd guitar sound, but you also have a clean DI'd version with that performance that you can run through your Line 6, Sansamp or favorite plugin. You could even re-amp that same signal.

[soybalm]

It all depends on your amp if it's worth going in that direction. I have Reverend Hellhound that is just gorgeous sounding with a NTK Rode mic in front of it about a foot back slightly off axis. The stock speaker sounds best to record with. I swapped in a Weber Blue Dog(expensive) but to no better result. The Alltone just recorded better. The preamp was also chosen when prototyping the Bose L1 through an isolated speaker box combo and as a direct preamp through a THD speaker load box.
I also have a Rivera 1M rackmount that also sounds great as a preamp but I use the default Amplitube 2.0 amp set up for a speaker sound. I believe I bypass the amp but maybe not. This combo sounds real deep without that wooly bass that you might get from SOME line 6 models. I also have a Vox Tonelab, the little one that has a model of a Tony Bruno Cowtipper that just kills.
Honestly, I use every amp plug in at my disposal most of the time. I'm lazy!
I did use the regular Line 6 2.0 pod successfully on a record. The sound was smaller sounding than the previously mentioned rigs but it got the job done. I used the AC-30 model with the middle dimed. Really important on this model. Small guitar sound is sometimes quite favorable in the mix but if you want some girth, maybe the XT has it. Neil Giraldo(Pat Benatar) gets a ridiculously great guitar sound and uses the rackmount Pod in combination with his Soldano amps. I know he records with both a mic'ed amp and a Pod at the same time. I had phasing problems doing that but I didn't spend a lot of time with that setup. Soldano is a great hard rock amp.
After all this is said and done. My Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue sounds great when recorded live via camcorders or right off the board. They really cut through the mix. You have to dial out some fizz when using pedals either on your guitar or the pedal. It was on several studio cuts but I didn't care for the overall recordings. My home stuff sounds better.
I say try everything and take notes!