Solid state amps are trash. I have a solid state marshall and it's piss compared to a full tube oranage amp. But if you don't want to spend a lot of money, get a solid state with built in effects. If anything get one of those DOD pedals with built in sound banks. Or you can get say the behringer direct box and a sound card. Plug those in then download Guitar Rig 2. I just downloaded it. It's probably the most advanced amp/effects/processor modeling softwares ever. It's sound is almost identical if not better than when I mic my marshall with two shure sm57's off axis and straight on.

As for buying a guitar, never buy new and never pay sticker price. It's like a car you gotta talk the seller down even if it's at a guitar center. Ibanez, ESP, Fender and Jackson are very tone and noob friendly.

I also just left Sonar for Cubase SX3 and Wavelab. But Steinberg has far superior recording abilites even though they were bought out by Yamaha. I'm also about to pick up an Alesis 3630 compressor and BlueTube pre-amp.