yeah, I bought an epiphone gibson sg supreme last year w/ a stand, locking hard case, and 10w amp. for $100. this "piece of crap" has served me well. I've had countless hours of fun "jammin'" with the best of them. but I really wish i had a much bigger amp. and some better pickups on the guitar.
dunno if your "eppy" is up there with one of their LesPaul models but it's been reported that there is a certain Epi LesPaul that rivals if not surpasses the real McCoy. Seems the orient mfgr. is placing great effort on quality control to lure away die-hard Gibson fans. Even a few professionals have claimed the Epi model even plays and sounds better than the original and at a much lower price tag. But if it's an investment as well, the Gibson will resell far better than the Epi will.... that is until Epi makes a solid name for itself someday.
guitar is one of those things where you can easily get hooked on getting pedals for FX...i like the WD7 wah and magicstomp multi FX pedal...ill be getting the RC2 looper from boss in a few days which will be nice.
Usually in wah pedals there's a curved rack on the end of the pedal, and a pinion on the pot, so as you push the pedal down the pot rotates fully. It works very well, but isn't the sort of thing you could 'home brew' very easily.