Guitar
Peavy Axcelerator [Red]($599)
Bass
Jackson C20MJ [Dark Purple]($199)
Drums
I have no drums. I don't even play drums though I can sort of keep a beat to some extent. I have drum loops with a more techno feel but I'm looking for straight rock sounding drum samples. I can tweak normal samples to sound as I need them musically but I've yet to find a good source. I want to use someone I know or someone that doesn't really mind me using it. I don't plan on making a profit yet but if I ever do make money, I'll be more than happy to offer something then. I'm doing this as a hobby now just to see if I'm any good so I don't want to pay money for something I may never use.
Mic
I forget, I'll update soon
Pedal
Digitech RP200 ($150)
Guitar cable->Sound card
1/4 to 1/8 converter picked up at a local Radio Shack
Computer
Refurbished Dell Dimension XPS B866
P3 - 866 MHz
384 MB Ram
Sound Card
Sound Blaster Live! 512
Software
Sonic Foundry Acid Pro 4.0 - music composition, track merging, looping, etc
Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 6.0 - track recording, track effects and tweaking
A steal
I got a steal on both full products from musiciansfriend.com. $150 dollars for both of them. Sure I don't get 5.1 like Sony's Acid now has but I want to make CDs with my music now, 5.1 can wait. I also received something like 6 acid random loops packs which retail from 30-50 bucks a piece. It was a great deal and still is. Sound Forge is up to 7.0 but I'm really not missing anything yet and I probably will plan to upgrade which will probably still be around $150 for the two rather than try to pay something like $5-600 for them all retail now.
The hookup
I have a 1/4th stereo chord running from my guitar or bass to the DigiTech RP200 Input. I run a 1/4th stereo cable from the output to the sound card as if I were plugging it into an amp. The problem is a sound card jack is 1/8th so you need a converter. No problem. I may not have gotten the best quality out of the converter but the recording sound is really quite good considering it is a PCI sound card.
Both the bass and guitar pick up quite well. The bass is a lot lower in octaves so it needs to be cranked more on the record settings. You can use a automatic volume adjuster to tweak the windows sound settings to desired levels and switch back and forth as needed. I also use this for headphone volumes when I want to record something only I can hear or want to crank up my sound when no ones around.
The thing is you don't really need a effects pedal to record your guitar/bass on the computer. I've been able to use just the converter in my sound card and hear a straight guitar sound (just as good as my pedal I might add). I use the pedal basically for the effects because a straight guitar sound is good but there's just so much more you can do with a guitar by tweaking it.
Conclusion
I'll post some pics of my setup when I have a better camera source. I have a cheap web-cam that won't really do this justice and I think by seeing the setup, you'll understand how incredibly easy it is. Anyone with a computer, a guitar/bass, their stereo cables for an amp, and a $2 part from Radio Shack can record music. You can even use Sound Recorder and tweak it to allow for bigger wave files. It does have huge limitations but it can work.
Software is the most important part of my setup. Without proper software all I'm really doing is just making different sounds. The software is what will pull it all together into a composition. If you're working on a budget I would suggest Acid Xpress, which is a free version of Acid. It only allows for 10 tracks but I believe you can consolidate tracks until you're down to just one. Take this example: you have a guitar part which is made up of about 6 tracks. You can merge them all into one track as a wave file then re-import just that track into Acid. Rather than work around music like this, I thought I would just buy Acid (the deal came along and I couldn't pass it up. No one in their right mind would have).
I hope this inspires some of you to start your own ventures. I truly believe that anyone can and should at least try to make their own music, if that's what they want to do in life. You may not want to be a musician now you can at least see how well you could do without spending a fortune on parts. This way if you really aren't cut out for music, you'll know (because it's all you, no one else helping) and you didn't spend an arm and a leg on the costs of trying to be a musician.
Good luck