All depends on the tone you want. I use an EMG 81 off the bridge on one of my guitars for lead - I find that it helps to cut through rhythm sections nicely and adds a little burn to distorted tones. IF you want rack mounted preamp that you can either go direct to a PA, DI to pc for recording or go through a poweramp and cab then I recommend either a Rocktron Prophesy II or Mesa Boogie Triaxis. If you just want an amp I would go for a Marshall TSL60 - great variety of tones, heavy as hell and tube driven. You can also get the head/cab combo of the same. 100 watts of tube power if total overkill as you have to crank it to get the tone unless you can get a powerbreak BUT I believe the TSL series has a powerbreak built in.