I use a variety of gear, but I'm not going to bother listing all of my guitars and such right now. During my brief foray into recording I used a Boss Micro-BR 4-track digital recorder, but it broke down on me within a couple months of purchase, which just reinforces my opinion that Boss makes overpriced shit for gear. Should I ever find a replacement for it I'll be able to record again, but in the meantime I just jam. I use a Line 6 Pod for all of my effects needs; they are handy little buggers.
Re: amps (since you asked and all), what you'll want depends on a lot of factors. The amp is a crucial part of a guitarist's tone that a lot of guitarists have a habit of overlooking. Where you expect to be playing, what style you play and the tone you're looking for are all going to help you decide.
Amps fall into two broad categories, being tube or solid state. Tube amps give a warmer and more organic tone than their solid state kin, and also tend to handle distortion better. On the other hand, tube amps are a bit more finicky to use than solid state amps, and will require the guitarist to be much more aware of his amp's condition and temperament.
Solid state amps, on the other hand, are hard wearing and tend to be more feature-rich. They're also cheaper than tube amps and easier to maintain. Cheap solid state amps may give a poor distorted tone, especially at high volume levels.
Another consideration is how much amp you want. Basically when buying an amp you have the option of getting either a combo unit (with the amp and head combined in one) or a separate head and speaker cabinet. You then further have the option of using one cabinet (a "half stack") or two (a "full stack"). Which way you'll want to go depends on what you're looking for.
Combo amps are less expensive, because they tend to be smaller and you don't have to buy the components separately. They're also good 'do it all' type amps, in that they can be used effectively for practices, gigs or even studio sessions when you get to that. The down sides are that they're usually less powerful than even the smallest stacks and that you'll have less ability to fine tune your sound. There are some excellent combo amps available though, and many of them are incorporating digital effects processors that will allow you to add in multiple effects as well (or even emulate other amps, in some cases). A great example of the high end on these amps is the
Line 6 Spider III 75. I played with one of these last week and they are pretty badass; they'll give you a variety of tones and effects so that you can find what you want.
A separate head and cab will run you more money, but will give you more volume and the ability to alter your tone down the road by switching out the head or the cab, or by adding a second cabinet and converting to a full stack. There are endless options available in both amp heads and speaker cabs that can be combined however you deem fit, but usually you can get a half stack to start you off which will include both a head and cabinet from the same manufacturer. Using a similar example, the store I buy from has a
Line 6 Spider III HD 75 on top of a
Spider III Cab for sale as a unit. These would give the same features as the combo amp above, but the 4x12 cabinet will give a lot more volume output than the 1x12 combo amp could manage.
The best way to choose an amp is to head over to the store and try a few out. You know what tone you're looking for and what your budget is, so give a few a listen. If you have a smaller combo amp for rehearsals and a half stack is in your price range, that might be the better option, or you may find a good little combo amp that suits your needs perfectly. Give a few a go, ask a few questions and see what there is to see.
On a re-read, I can see that I sound a bit like an advertisement for Line 6 gear; I guess you all know whose amps I like best now. Other good brands to check out are Marshall, Crate or Ashdown, although Ashdown recently moved to exclusively producing bass amps. Orange has also been getting good press lately, although I've never played through one of them so I can't personally say whether they're any good or not.