Re: i give up...advice!?
Welcome back Hoss, my Schecter PT-playing friend.
I'm in the process of joining my new church's band on guitar AND simultaneously taking over the operation and administration of the sound system. I joined the Church Sound forum at ProSoundWeb.com (
http://www.live-audio.com/). I was surprised at one thread I saw when I first signed up - a noob asked how to get a good guitar tone off a miked amp. None of the experienced sound engineers who responded said "use a modeller and go direct". The consensus was to start with a good, small tube amp, mike it with an SM57, then experiement from there.
If you're being told that you
have to use a modeller direct, then somebody needs to push the "smite" button on your soundman. I'm not a fan of modellers - I'm sure it's possible to get good tones out of them through the board, but it's equally possible (perhaps even easier) to get good tones from a miked amp. There has to be some give-and-take: I would say a guitarist who shows up with a Marshall NMV half-stack and says it has to be cranked to get "his tone" is not being reasonable and needs to meet his soundman half-way (OK, maybe 3/4 of the way).
But IIRC, you already have a Blues Junior, and no competent soundman should have a problem with that. In a really small church, a MiniMASS might be in order if you really like to crank the BJ. Our church seats about 250, and I'm finding I run my "Marshall" 13 Watter really low on the MASS. I just bought a VibroChamp that I think will be sufficient as my "Church amp".
Spend half of your money on an SM57 and a small stand or mounting bracket. Mike the amp yourself every week to make sure you get it right. Maybe set up an off-hours time to experiement with your miking position, just you and the soundman. Then blow the other half of the $200 on yourself.
Or,
buy your soundman this book , and (to paraphrase Monty Python) hit him with it, right here, above the beak.