I’m guessing the guitarist with the Ibanez RG that you enjoy is Steve Vai..Am I right? Because I love his guitar as well (The monkey handle is so cool). My Yamaha is a regular acoustic, but I have a clip-on pickup for it when I use it to record.
My Vox amp is a solid state, but it has a setting which makes it sound “tube-like”, although, it doesn’t come close to an actual tube amp. I agree, having pedals give more versatility and greater sound options, but I rarely play live, so for recording purposes, I’m okay without pedals.
About the Synyster Gates Schecter, I totally understand that playing anything other than hard rock/ metal will look ridiculous, but since I rarely play live, I’d be fine with it! (Also, because I mostly play his sort of genre anyway.)