I use a stratocaster guitar with active EMG pro-series pickups for all of that stuff. I keep the pickup selection switch in the 2nd position (ie. so it plays through the neck pickup and the middle pickup at the same time). I use fairly thin plectrums.. my favourite width at the moment is.. oh.. I can't read the writing now.. I only bought it a week ago.. hrmm.. I think it's a .76mm one.. there's that popular range of plectrums that are colour coded.. The thinnest is orange I think, then yellow is the next one.. I use the yellow one. Hrmm.. what else.. Oh yeh.. I use fuzz rather than distortion.. and I always add delay even if it's just a little bit.

Other than all that I think the rest is just technique..


PS. To get out of a creative rut in your playing.. try learning some more music theory. Understanding music a little more opens up so many more possibilities. Even if you go over basic major and minor scales and their modes again.. it really does help.. a lot! Learning about the common uses of certain aspects of music theory also helps.. for example.. understanding how "chord leading" works is extremely important when creating your own chord progressions... "chord substitution" of course comes next and so on.... Try playing a standard triangle shaped D Major chord, next play a Bminor7 chord.. see how similar they sound.. yet there is a subtle difference. I think that in the key of G Major.. you can easily substitute these two chords.. anyway.. the point is really that a little bit of music theory can go a long, long way.