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That happened to me a couple of weeks ago when I heard some of Joe Satriani's songs for the first time.

When I get bored with playing, I tend to just try a different style.

Currently:

Electric - Ernie Ball Regular Slinky.
Acoustic - Ernie Ball Earthwood Medium-Light.

I tend to try a different gauge of strings on the Electrics each time I change them.

I've got one of the Cort acoustics...the cheapest one. I've forgotten what it's called.
It sounds good and I haven't had any problems with it, other than that I put the wrong gauge strings on it.

A little info from Wikipedia:

Hold on a minute...if you mean this disclaimer:

Then it's on all of the songs, and it's always been like that.

The main thing that makes a difference is the scale length (the distance between the nut and the bridge). If you have smaller hands a smaller scale length is more comfortable, as a rule.

Telecaster, Stratocaster = 25.5" scale length
PRS = 25" scale length
Les Paul = 24.75" scale length
Mustang, Jaguar = 24" scale length.

Sorry for the long post but it's either this or split it over three. :(

If you want a good clean tone then you'd be better off with a Fender or Fender-style amp.
If you want a better Distorted tone then you'd be better off with a Peavey. If you have a look at this:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dD7EoehgpsA

it seems pretty versatile. The demo is for the 2x12 100watt version, but the 1x12 50watt version should sound pretty much the same.

I tend to go through the youtube videos to find out about the tone of the different amps, pedals, etc. since the "local" music store is an hours drive away and doesn't stock any amps other than the cheaper Laney amps.

An example of the "buzz" on tube amps:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=J4OUNA-Fx-w

as soon as he starts playing the buzz disappears. If it really causes problems you could always buy something like this:

http://www.musicstreet.co.uk/boss-noise … db5df7f0c5

I use a Zoom G2.1U which has the same effect as one of the options, and it works brilliantly. Unless I put my strat-style directly in front of the amp there's no hum at all. :)
I still end up using the Amp on its own most of the time though as it doesn't have much of a hum anyway.

If you do have any chance of trying some amps in this price range out before you buy them then do it, the last thing you want to do is end up spending your money then finding an amp you like more for the same amount.

As for the Valvetronix, it depends whether you want an amp that's designed to sound like a load of other amps. The VT series just seems to complicated for me, but plenty of people like them. It all depends on the player. As long as you get an amp that you like that's all that matters.

If you get a recording amp like this one:

http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/74524

it will have less as it's designed to be as quiet as possible for recording. If you need to have a mic next to it you don't want any fuzz/static from it.

The thing is though those amps are quite low powered, so they might not be suitable for gigging.

If you're willing to settle for slightly worse distortion a Solid-State amp should have less background noise than a Tube amp. Mine didn't, but it was 15 years old.

30Watts Tube is equal to 100Watts Solid-State.
I bought a 5Watt Tube amp and it's louder than the 25Watt SS amp I replaced.

You're just listed two of my favourite bands.
One thing I always find helps is to play the songs yourself first, then decide if they're overrated or if they actually deserve it.

And you may be able to play some Green Day songs, but can you play them exactly the same as they do?

Drop D is when the low E string is tuned down to D.
I think the one geoaguiar mention is called something like double drop D.

How about these:

http://www.rondomusic.com/

I've read a lot of good reviews for the Agile LP clones.