I too rarely use my amp, even though I have a very cool old Peavy tube amp. I use a Guitar Pod, which has tons of preset effects as well as you can create your own sounds using the many virtual stomp boxes that come with it.
http://line6.com/pod20/ is the Guitar Pod. I have an older model though.
http://lbbv.com/mymusic/mp3/index2.html is my little recording studio setup.
I have had my American Strat for about 20 years now but just recently bought a Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro and I love the sound of it. I bought it after watching numerous videos comparing the sound of the Epiphone to the Gibson and they sound almost identical. Paid $500 for the Epiphone compared to $5000 for the same Gibson.
-- Bill