dunno 'bout you but I find one of the best ways of stretching myself guitarwise is to use a budget priced no-frills electric guitar with no or just one old-fashioned effect box. for years I used Hohner strat copy with whammy bar with just a plug-in Boss flange unit. this meant I had to work hard at making the most of limited resources by developing the whole arsenal of dive-bombing, 2-handed tapping, double stops, plucking,raking, sweeping etc. no fancy multi-effects units to hide inadequacies. anyone else tried this approach?