A pleasure palefave, though I'm just a fellow sub whose relative guitar competencies and experience would rank me 'Gumby' in my own self-critical evaluation, if offering perspective and guidance derived of knowledge gleaned from my own journey. Ever the realist, it'd be an impossible objective me to attain the degree of competency or knowledge within my remaining time available to attain honorary kudos of being addressed "Sensei".

My triage on those machine heads brands is objective, with my only bias a priority on value, where value = price/performance factors. Off the top of my head, other than Cort or Yamaha OEM predominantly on my acoustics, the majority of my tuners are either Grover fitted OOTB, or retrofitted (Korean) Wilkinson upgrades. I like the latter particularly. High quality and usually friendlier to the budget than Grover.

Epi Dots are very popular, receiving positive end user reports. What's the difference between the standard Dot and Deluxe? Anything other than colour choice, fingerboard (woods), flame aesthetics and 10% price? Here's Tom demonstrating a Deluxe. And Lee with the Dot Standard in a much older (2014) vid. Take into perspective on the latter than the recorded audio is not so good as the Deluxe's 2018 recording. Same PUPs in both if I'm given to understand correctly?

Can't go wrong with any Fender amp IMV. From competition not without their own impressive laurels, they impressed me sufficiently to buy two. You'll get [u]a lot[/u] of enjoyment from the Mustang V1, and 20W out of an 8" speaker is plenty for home studio use of the style of music the Dot (or ES-335) is predominantly orientated to. That said, have a look at the Champion series too. Personally I think Fender's Champions are an undervalued gem offering impressive tonality for their pricepoint and a great place not only to start, but continue to be enjoyed on the journey with you for a long time - providing they're the tone your looking for. Don't be blinded by # of features comparison perception of 'more for your money' with patchable digital modelling amps. Determine need, then 'taste' the quality, not the quantity. I'm not owner pride biased in that evaluation. I own and play all three types tube, patchable digital modelling, and digital. Here is a demo/review of the Champion range.

That said, I'm the first to respect that 'tone' is perceptually subjective to each individual.

[br]If it sounds superfluous to wish you "enjoy the journey", as it's apparent you already are, nevertheless, with sincerity, enjoy the journey.

[br]Cheers,

manXcat