It is fun to horse around with the gadgets, but there's nothing like the purity of a good acoustic guitar sans effects most of the time. Trouble is, it's hard to amplify that sound. The signal that leaves the guitar is real important so I always have a preamp in line first, figuring that the more signal the chain of effects receives, the better the end result will be, with less noise.
I've looked at the new, and very cheap, Behringer preamps. Anyone tried them yet?