Rich's recommended guitar effects pedals for under 50 bucks
I have another post where I recommend 6 guitar pedals, and I admitted that you should not go cheap when it comes to pedals, so the ones listed there are on the higher end of the cost curve.
Tiny amplifiers for guitars
Tiny amps are best described as "cute". Definitely not that loud, but still cool to have. They make for good decoration more than anything else, so if you want something on your desk or shelf that says, "I'm a guitar player", the tiny amp is a must-have. Your friends may say, "I would never buy one of those", but that's not true. They totally would.
Do you really need better pickups in a Strat?
I will list some recommended pickup upgrade kits below for those of you who want to swap out your existing Fender or Squier Strat pickups for something else, but before I do, here's a few words about how pickups in a Stratocaster works.