Had good results with my Prosonus and a borrowed Arp tube preamp.

You do have to experiment a bit, and get your gain chain under control. I find best results with the lowest amount of gain closer to the source (mic, guitar etc.), and the most closer to the recording media, like the master record level. That's my rule-of-thumb, again, you will have to experiment some.

I don't suggest using a tube-preamp for getting crunch or distortion. They will warm up and "liven" the sound a bit.

A good condenser mic will go a long way for vocals. I probably don't know what I'm missing with the higher-end stuff mentioned here. I've always had to be patient and tweak/experiment alot to get magical results out of minimal gear and budget, heh.

As for the cheap Strats, I actually like some of their tone I've heard, they just feel like crap to play.

My opinion.

Peace,
-Rick