i'll jump in here and comment. as many people know, i write presets for various modelers. i'm known for making artist presets. the axe-fx is more than capable of cloning artist's tone. what i know about the whole process can be easily shared here.
if the artist preset is exact to the cd tone it won't sound or feel right to most people. that's just what it is. tone that works in a mix is usually thinner sounding than your typical guitar setup (whatever that may be). if you record much, your engineer might love your tone though.
artist presets will not sound right when played through anything but a full range speaker. period.
many will argue that your speaker being different from the guy who made the presets will render the preset useless....i disagree. if you play a preset that sounds just like the artist's recorded tone through your speaker, then play the cd through your speaker, it should sound the same. if you speaker sounds like crap with the cd on, so will the preset. the better the speaker, the better the tone for the most part. for example: i only make presets in a studio environment with quality reference monitors. i take breaks every few minutes and listen to the reference material over and over again trying to hear subtle eq differences between it and my preset. when i'm done it sounds very close if not exact in many cases. my history has proved that it can be done.
http://www.singtall.com
what about your guitar? i use a ":standard" humbucker equipped guitar that has nothing special about it tonally. i also use a fender american strat when single coils are needed. if you have a guitar that sounds fairly average then the presets will translate very well for you. if you have some weird setup with pickups that sound like glass breaking then you will need to drop off some highs with an eq before you hit the amp model.
what about new firmware messing up the artist presets? simple: if you like what you currently have, don't update it. if you are gigging you probably should not be tinkering with your perfect tone anyways. if you like firmware updates and easter eggs, then artist presets are probably not your thing anyway. what i'll do is release presets with a firmware number attached to the folder. then every few updates i'll tweak the back of presets and post them again with the new firmware number. that's about all that can be done at the moment.
the bottom line is that artist presets are coming, and i'm making them. i'm working on making a whole bank of them. what i would like to see happen is that i write a bank of artist presets, then guys like Fremen dial in some presets, then Simeon makes his usual awesome effect driven presets. that would be a good starting point.
finally, although it's cool to play through your favorite artist's rig.....it's just not your tone. learn from the presets. see what amps feel the way you like (regardless of the amp brand). learn how to use an eq to tweak your tone. make YOUR tone and never stop playing.
peace,
Singtall