I have a cousin who's into this "vintage-budget" stuff, he used to play with a piece of a broken CD instead of a picking, he's currently recording an album with his epiphone LP and VOX valvetronix... amazingly he got great results
The Epiphone LPs can be fine guitars, nothing really wrong there.
Vox Valvetronix aren't the worst amps in the world either, quite under-rated actually. You wouldn't get a spectacular metal tone out of one but they are fine general purpose amps.
Hey the HD147 is a good practice/small gig amp. I have been wanting to get one to replace my 5150 for practice and live because it sounds great and is stupid light weight.
Some time ago I did a blind test with a Spider II and a 5150 and everyone though the 5150 was a sim and the Spider was the "real tube amp". Considering the HD147 is a much better amp, if you know what you are doing, it can fool a lot of people live and prove a worthy amp in practice. The only reason I don't use my Spider for practice is because it has a software bug that causes it to sweep the high knob and swell the volume every 30-45 seconds which is annoying as fuck. Even if it did work, I wouldn't want to be seen with it live, the HD147 on the other hand, is a different story.
This forum is only good for buying used gear...and sometimes interview are good (except people didn't correct mistake when happen... as Guillaume Tell reference in CLA interview GT have a 9000J and a sony oxford, no G+ here).