I just spent a small fortune getting my home studio setup, if you have 3 grand to play with on gear (excluding guitar and a pc) then I would suggest the following.

Rack Gear:

1. Mesa Boogie Triaxis - you can get one on Ebay for around $700. Digital with real tubes, sounds a lot more realistic than the POD.

2. Preamp - you can find plenty around, do some research then check out Ebay. You need this is you get passive speakers/monitors.

3. M-Audio Delta 1010 - I can't recommend this highly enough! Zero latency soundcard with a rack mountable interface


Software:

1. ProTools or Cubase SX3 - You can get the full version of Cubase SX3 on Ebay for around $350 (student version but it is the same as pro version but cheaper - Ebay sellers dont require proof of id!!). Cubase also has the most plug-ins (VST) available.


Speakers/Monitors:

One of the most important parts of the whole set-up. Get flat response system, either M-Audio, Tannoy or if you can afford them Genelex (the best there is). Active speakers have built in power supplies and preamps and will save a lot of space.

If you are looking for a really good pc get a Dell from the manufacturer. If you go the Dell route get the following: an Optiplex with 2Gb ram, Current top speed processor, 19 inch TFT screen, Windows XP Pro, don't get Microsoft Office! Don't get ANY extra software besides the XP Pro. I found this out when I installed GigaStudio 3, the relly good packages require a freshly installed pc with no crap on them otherwise things go wrong. Also, don't get an onboard soundcard. No matter what you read, Creative Labs hardware is not up to scratch for recording pro level sounds. An M-Audio card will solve this problem. If you buy from the manufacturer, you will be able to get all the tech support you need (important when setting up a home studio) and you get it at it's cheapest. Also get the fastest cd/dvd burner they have. You don't need a pc with hyper-threading, all of the big software packages require that this is turned off for them to operate properly. Also, get the biggest drives you can afford - I got two 300GB drives, with the second being a skuzzy drive (much faster - necessary for pulling samples over to the master drive). Make sure that you are going to get ayour c customised to provice as close ts close as possible to sero latency for audio applications.

Ancillaries include: a really comfy chair, a large desk with two levels (upper level for TFT scren and studio monitors), an Evolution midi keyboard (very important for programming beats and any other midi - which you WILL end up doing at some stage).

There you have it, the guts of a kick ass studio!