First off, let me just say that I HATE the new format!!! Maybe it is designed to confuse us old fogies!!!

Anyway, no preamp will ever replace a STACK !!!!

Having said that. I have a V-Twin preamp pedal...it is AWESOME!!!!

You can push it through any number of geetar amps and out comes...CARLOS!!!!! (If you have to ask "Carlos Who?", get a gig at the local McDonald's !) I always will opt for a guitar amp that the artist works with rather than a mere processor.....

Hey, audiokid, this format SUX!!!!!!!!!
A guitar amp is based on feedback from the player, and I mean
dynamics, not "squeal"...A stack has so many interwoven parameters going on, just placing a "preamp" in it's place ain't going to do it.....

ART, you should be ashamed for even asking such a mundane question!!! :wink:

I understand that a lot happens between guitar pickups and amp...I'm a guitar player. Im asking to see if it is true what Boogie claims.

I'm losing my house and won't be able to record a cranked cabinet in the rat hole apartment that I'm moving into....that is all.

I guess that it really depends on how you end up running it.
Were you looking at the rack-mount V-Twin? Or the pedal?
Do you already have a modeller? Neither unit will provide you a totally record-ready tone "out of the box". I have used my V-twin pedal patched into a Vox Tonelab pedalboard with very great results. Ditto with it plugged into a guitar amp, even a small one at low volumes. Only so-so when patched in directly to the desk.
I have a client who has the rack-mount version and that works much better as a DI-type tone box, but you still have to have the requisite DSP to pull it off well. I have an old Neve Melbourne (broadcasting desk), and the pre's load it alright. The XLR DI outs
on the VTwin seem to be rather sensitive to what they're "seeing", and I have actually taken the UNBALANCED outs of the VT and run them through a Radial DI to buffer them before going to the desk. I also have a Tascam DM24, and that arrangement worked very well for us going into that. I don't know why that is...maybe it's whatever trannies are in the rackmount box. Soo, to recap:
Be prepared to anty-up some $$$ for either an improved DI box or
a modeller to get either version to really rock. You won't be sorry.

I was looking at the Mesa Boogie Recording Pre. You can see it on their site....it looks kinda promising.

I can provide some feedback on the Recto Preamp. I originally purchased the VTwin rackmount in order to give some sponge to the stomp boxes that I use. Eventually I moved away from MOSFET power and moved up to the recto preamp. The recto preamp does have parallel outputs so you are able to use this as part of a live rig and also send a stereo pair out. My setup is something like this: [guitar]->[tech21 wah]->[Metal Zone modded by Richard Keeley :)]->[Volume Pedal]=>{Mesa Recto Preamp}=>{Mesa 2:100}=>{(2) 412 cabinets with G85k's}. I send one set of the recto preamps to the 2:100 for onstage reinforcement, the other set goes to a rackmount DI in my shock case. Whenever I play live, we have the engineer tap right into the (2) balanced outs for front of house. One of the best benefits that I get is the consistency from recording at home to playing live; my tone (for what its worth) stays very intact.

Now the recto preamp has (2) major voicings for the DI's. One is for recording where the brightness is dimmed and sounds more like a '57 off axis than a direct signal. The other setting really allows the amp to sound like it's intended, but the DI out then does not have the mic simulation padding. On that trade off, I go with better signal to front of house and adjust my poweramp's presence to make up for it onstage.

This was a good solution to me, but very overkill compared to many guitar rigs that my peers rock upon. This was ideal for me because we prefer to multitrack all of our practice sessions and our practice area is small. We are a metal act and practice volume is high which appears to be key to the players 'getting into' thier roles. The bleed from the drums no longer affects my guitar tones. We run bass DI as well which helps that. If only the vox could be helped, but hey, If we can get anything better than a turd out of full metal volume in a 12x12 standard height room, then we're doing well.

Hope that I have helped some. Please feel free to hit me up if you have any other questions on the Mesa Recto Pre or the VTwin Rack Pre. (BTW the Vtwin Rack pre is still in my studio for recording both clean guitar and for use with my clients various pedalboards. It runs very well as a DI for guitar.)