When my band recorded, I used a POD for my guitar, and was very happy with it, and I love tube amps. With the POD you can choose a lot of different settings and you can get a nice tube sound.

Also when we recorded, we all played the songs together and recorded them. Then went back and fixed everything, starting with drums, bass, guitars, vocals. I think it worked really well, and I will definetly do it the same way next time.