I can't wait until I actually know what I'm doing on the guitar so that I can obsess over gear and shit.
My advice? Besides practice, practice, practice, learn everything you can about
everything. Music theory,amps, cords, stomp boxes, digital processors, pick-ups, and axes. Then forget all of it. Seriously. At that point, you'll understand that simplicity is the best tool of all.
It took me a long time to learn what I really wanted in terms of sound, live set-up, and execution. As it turns out, playing live is all about volume control and the "less is more" philosophy. You like the sound of distorted guitars? As it turns out, almost all of the guitarists you like actually use less gain than you think. The
power is in the volume of your amp, the type of pick-ups you favor, and the ability to control your tone with your volume knob(s) and pick attack. I finally realized that what I was looking for could be found in a single channel tube amp with a good amount of gain, like an old Marshall JCM 800 from the early 80's. Since those heads pretty much cost an arm and a leg, I started looking around for alternatives. As it turns out, about 5 or 6 years ago, famed amp hot-rodder, Mike Soldano, started up the Jet City line of amp heads. The first amp Jet City Amplication put out was a single channel 20 watt high-gain tube amp for the awesome price of $300. It has that Brit-style sound very similar to a JCM 800. From there, I knew it was all about sticking an overdrive pedal in front of it while at a high volume to get that metal sound. Since the amp head is at 20 watts, it's easy to get those tubes nice and hot and ready to growl. To get my clean sound, I just roll the volume knob back (and maybe switch to my neck
pick-ups), disengage the overdrive, and pick cleanly. Works every time. I also keep a Boss Super Chorus set at low settings with a high level running at all times to thicken the sound up.
I can't give you any advice on how to have a stage presence except for the obvious: confidence. Lots of confidence. Although, some amount of liquor or beer helps. Not so much that it degrades your playing ability, but enough so that you're loose and "feeling it."
Being a "gear head," in my opinion, really isn't where anybody should ever be as a true musician. Though I'd be lying if I said that looking at a Musician's Friend catalog didn't give me the same feels as staring at a Hustler centerfold. It's good to know what you want and to be informed about how certain pieces of gear work. It's even good to get excited about new toys coming out. But I've met too many "musicians" in my time to know the difference between a real player and an elitist who can't really play, yet knows
everything about vintage gear in order to make somebody feel dumb.
Just like in Magic, you have to surround yourself with people better than you if you want to grow. If you keep jamming with just yourself or other beginners you will rarely get where you need to be. Being put "on the spot" and finding yourself in new situations is where you'll learn to think fast and, subsequently, grow as a player.
Whatever you do, just keep playing. It's what a musician does. Not because of anyone else or because you feel that you have to. It's because you enjoy it and it provokes a response in your soul that you can't get anywhere else. That's what it means to be a musician.