Thanks for the info guys, generally very helpfull. I appreciate that quality and cost of equipment means a lot, as it does with everything, but my point was the generalised sounding of the equipment and I believe the amp I had before was pretty naff anyway with no real distortion, hence the reason I'll be trying out some amps.

I just managed to secure a new guitar on ebay for a cracking price and look forward to it's arrival. I also take note of the points regarding learning, which is exactly what I stated in the first place, I need to learn, but I can pick up a lot from the sounds in the mean time, but only if it sounds roughly correct (hell, I'm probably going to need a shrink after this! :) )

as to your question Alucard, is my username a variation of Azrael? I was known by that about 10 years ago before everyone atarted using it in various forums, hence the change, but I've never been in this forum before, so It's probably someone else......unless there's clones about ! :S

Also, bizarre queston time, if you can plug a guitar through a stereo to produce a standard amp setup, is there a way of using the computer with a program to recreate the different effects?? Just a thought....