Guitars: I like the sound of the old Hofner verythin and archtops. If you could get one of the ones, made for Germany (called Höfner) it could be the guitar of your life. To the epis... Like Jim said: Most of them are junk. Junk? Total dogshit. LP's, SG's are extremely bad, Sheratons are unplayable. My Casino is really good, but I advise you not to buy one of those because of the horrible feedbacks it makes if you try to distort it. So you should buy a guitar with a sustain block in it like the Gretsch Streamliner. I tried one of those in a store. It seemed to be quite good. It sounded well, did not make those feedbacks and played well. I would buy one of those. You should go to a store and test the guitar before you buy it. Gives savety. Pedals: In my opinion you don't need any pedals for playing guitar in school. When I was in school I baught a wah but I never used it. So think twice before buying a pedal. A overdrive for soloing would not be bad, but is not necessary in my opinion. Amp: ask Jim.