Eric,
nope not uk, but i sometimes get stuff from there...
im from portugal.
i was looking into the marshall..but thats a stack man lol waaayyy too big...
thing about uk ebay, is that they didnt get the Euro currency, so everything just skyrockets in terms of prices...its like (no shit) rat 2 pedal (roughly 120 bucks) - shipping costs for it (200 bucks)...
so u see...
and its not necessary you know..small retailers will give u 20 bucks of shipping costs, just normal...but big store have one big fucking attitude towards everything i guess...economic wise they hate the european union, its a divised country on that matter, i have several english friends and its a never ending struggle..most of them are pro UE, but some just dont seem to be able to move on...their godamn identity blah blah...making me not being able to get my friggin stomp boxes. lol
your aproach makes sense Eric..it really does...god knows i would love to just focus on music and get done with it...but i also kind of "fell in love" with the recording/technical side of things, plus i rarely trust anyone and want my stuff to be perfect (even if its crap, its my crap, and i did it all). i think it makes sense, very valuable choice (yours is), but...i dont think u really need a great sounding room, etc, etc to make records...the guy im working with (owns a VS), he has the coolest band ever, kind of one of the many branches of our folk music (its called fado), and he gives it an alternative flavour blah blah...on the force of his demo alone (entirely done on the VS) he got contacted by blue note, sony and many indies. the stuff he does on the VS (an old one like yours, not even produced anymore) has commercial quality and most indies are offering to master the demo and just go with it.
his room faces a buys street, he's got nothing but a 57 and lots of talent.
the way i see it, its gonna take time knowing the insides of a siab (for instance, cause thats what im going with), but once u do...no looking back, totally focus on the songs...i think im willing to take that time and not depend on anyone else...the lower model from the siab im getting is being used to produce commercial records, so i can only imagine what i can do with the upper one. plus i dont trust local engineers (there's like 3 in the whole country), none of them ever worked on the music i do, and they probly never will...plus im very self conscious in studios...hell, fuck studios for all i care...fuck these (i mean)...portugal has one fucked up studio scene...unexistant. the ones that actually exist, are nothing but mainstream workhouses.
anyway, ive thought of your aproach myself, numerous times..i have a laptop, hell just get a friggin maudio firewire thingy or similar and go! but, as i said, i really want to do this right

and how would i justify nice mics (cause i really want them), with a firewire interface..
im not even playing live that often so...i just want to produce my stuff and have it sound the way i want...but in the right way. crap or not, its beyond my concern.
but i love your aproach..i really do, believe me! i wish i was in a country where i could actually afford to do that in terms of studio choices, and comprehensive/patient engineers.
amps..
i found some gems
check this out..
http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=257&CollectionID=13
and also the peavy classic 20...
this epi sure looks good.
ps. software "purchase"...err...yep..thats my kind of purchase
i have pro tools and cool edit pro 2.1
major "purchases"..