Just to add my two cents to the Epiphone discussion, (obviously, other than the bargain basement acoustics they make, like less than $170 ones) Everything they make is fantastic.
Apart from the Les Pauls. (and the Basses, but thats another story)
They sell so many and so cheap in comparison to other guitars they make, they are just made from the cheapest bulk ordered shitty wood, mostly not solid, with shitty machine heads, the neck and headstock are the same shite, so eventually the screwholes for the machineheads will just grate away and your guitar is dead. But they are sure painted to look like the real thing
The SG is good from Epi because its make from not alot of material, and not alot of crafting, hence why its so good yet so cheap. And then every other guitar they make costs a comparitive 150 dollars more at least, so you get better materials and craftsmenship.
As for my instruments, I have a lot. Around half of my stuff came from constantly upgrading things and trading stuff, and the rest came from an advance from the label my band was signed to for a very breif time around 18 months ago. We got the money to buy some new stage-gear, having lied about the standard of what we already had, and then split up shortly thereafter.
I'm not going to list every little thing I have, just my things I used with the band and things I use generally...
Guitars -
1999 Gibson Firebird VII - Black with Gold hardware and Gold vintage SeymourDuncan P-90's. - It rules. I got it for my 18th birthday. Light, as easy to play as an SG with bags more tone, and a Bigby. Looks cooler too.
2005 Epiphone Wildkat - It's like a not-too-bulky hollowbody version of the firebird really. I got it for like, £200 last year. Had it re-finished with a transparent green top as apposed to the antique natural. No new picks yet, but I am still holding out hope I will find the Alnico's I lifted from Firebird.
1969 Fender USA Telecaster - Natural blonde finish with white scratchplate, silver hardware, white binding and a vintage 69' hot rodded SD pick up at the bridge. It is a result of years of guitar upgrading, it cost me thousands and I cherish it with all my heart. It hardly gets touched while im at Uni sadly, just sits at home, gathering value (which it hasn't actually been doing in the last 18 months.)
My acoustic is an Epiphone EJ-200. I think its as good as the Gibson it copies.
My current Guitar amp rig is a Marshall JCM2000 TSL 122 Combo, with a 4x12'' Orange cab and a 2x12'' Marshall cab. The amp is just awesome. 100w all valve, 3 independant channels. Its ace. Has a power reduction function to bring it down to emulate a 25w amp. It is totally capable of everything from playing in my bedroom to playing some fucking big gigs. I did have an Orange Rockerverb 100w head and an Orange Tiny Terror for practices and quieter situations, but I sold both to get the Marshall and put the rest of the money to my Tele.
Basses
Italia Maranello - Red. Looks like a LP, but much cooler. Better quality build and better detail, and plays and sounds better than an LP bass.
Fender USA Deluxe Jazz Bass. White with a gold plate and silver hardware. It's very nice. I also have a much cheaper Fender USA Jazz Bass which is white with a red tortoise place which plays almost as well, and I have a black sticker coated Squier P-Bass that was less than £200 and is a very close 3rd from the 3.
as for the amp, I have an Ampeg SVT Head and an SVT 8x10'' Cab. I got a 700w Peavey firebass head and a 4x10 for the other 98% of the time.
Pedals -
In my more naive days as a teen, I would save up and spend money on a new Boss pedal every month it seemed. It got to a point where after about 3 or 4 years, I had a Boss pedal for everything. I had around 35 I recall. All different. Then Behringer brought out replicas of them all, for about a quarter of the price, and they are just as good. So I decided to sell all my Boss's and get Behringers to replace them. I also streamlined the pedals I used to a 10 slot pedal box, even then I didn't really want any more than 8, as I started to play with a band more, so the vast majority of them got sold and never replaced. Leaving alot of money to spend on some of the list above.
The pedals I am left with are my Snarling Dogs Bluesbreaker wah pedal, and my Big Muff fuzz stomp box, outside the board I have Behringer tuner, amp selector and preamp booster, and inside I have a vintage distortion, a chorus c-space, a bass flanger, a high end flanger, a super phase shifter, a compressor/sustainer, vintage delay, bass limiter/enhancer, a feedback/distortor and the only Boss pedal I own now, the Loop Sampler. You may notice that this is 15, but I stole alot of the Behringer pedals I now own from a practice studio in manchester which shall remain nameless, plus the Loop Sampler was bourght with the label money.
In fact, I have alot of stuff stolen from studios and gigs over the years. About 4 shure mics, a few mic stands, A couple of wedge monitors, countless xlr and jack leads....
I know it seems like an outrageous list, but I am now 24, and I have buying and selling instruments and amps and adding money where I can for about 13 years, and I had £2.5k spent on me with that pedal, 3 basses and the 8x10 bass cab. My Firebird was a present, the Wildkat was only 200 pounds, my accoustic only 300. My standard jazz bass was under 500. I kept trading and adding 100 pounds to what is now my fender, and amps, which are all 2nd hand. I did that every year, and then I sold my Orange heads and most of my pedal, which went for like, about 60 quid each on average to get the Marshall (Which I got for a steal at £500 (you can get them for less than that on ebay these days)) and had about £2000 which went on to the guitar values.
I tell this story because it still shocks me how I've ended up with such a sick set up, now I am no longer in a band.
I also have a banjo, mandolin, some keyboards, lots of random percussion instruments, and upright piano.... hand me downs and god knows whys...