Can’t go wrong with a Tele!
I play, have been trying to get good for 31 years, but at least it’s still fun.
A few years ago I was getting into metal again and decided to take lessons for a few months to work on technique and fundamentals — it helped a lot. No more wrist pain after tremolo picking for more than 5 minutes.
I have a decent solid state Orange amp and a pedal board that I’ve put together over the past 10 years, and I love it to death, but it doesn’t agree with my current apartment situation. Fortunately, amp modelers are great now. I’ve got some Neural DSP stuff on my iMac and it sounds great and makes laying down tracks almost too easy. Now I just need to finish one for once.
On my 40th birthday a few years ago I had a mid life crisis and bought myself a nice 7-string. 14 year old me would have approved, and it made me happy to make him happy. It’s stupid and I love it.