I own some Fenders and Gibsons, but over the last couple of years, Harley Benton produces very good guitars that are very affordable.
I have one of their telecasters, and it’s on par with a squier or a cheap fender, provided that you get it set up properly.
When I got to that cheap telly, I initially had planned to replace the pick ups, but guess what, the stock pick ups are good actually.
For amps, that strongly depends on your personal taste, but usually you go used. For example, if you’re into metal, you can get Peavey ValveKings for low $, they just require a good speaker. There are also several cheap clones available. YouTube has you covered with demos.
Also, digital amps have become good enough, even those software only, for example GarageBand.
You just need some audio interface.
No, not especially. What Espanso does is watch keystrokes, looking for the specific combinations in the config to then expand the shortcut to whatever it's defined to do. There is similar functionality built into macOS/iOS but it's _far_ less featured.
In System Settings > Keyboard > Text Input > Text Replacements
Basically, it's a simple replacement tool, which works for some repetitive stuff (i.e. my name, my email address, my phone number, or a short string for closing out emails). Epsanso, and tools like it, do so much more.
Edit to add: Data detectors on macOS/iOS look for existing strings of text that you can then get more contextual options for. Things like dates and times might open up a calendar view, phone numbers might offer a menu to dial it, or addresses might offer the ability to open a map for it. Absolutely useful, but not the same thing.
Imagine archeologists in 1000 years unearthing one of those and trying to figure out its purpose or cultural meaning… (and no, your data won’t survive)
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