Clueless Newbie Questions, Karaokeing recordings. Options

[nickdaum]

My current hard and soft:
Mac G5 dual
M-Audio FireWire Solo
GarageBand
Audacity

I'm not a professional musician and don't intend to be. I just want to start singing and playing guitar Blues on my own as a retirement hobby.
Instead of using loops for the drums and bass backing I would like to use actual recordings of my favorite musicians as karaokes. Is it possible to remove both voice and guitar from a recording? If so how?

Secondary question, a little off topic: I need to buy an electric guitar, not too expensive, possiblly second hand.
As a matter of fact I'll stick to a slow tempo, like Blues does, so I don't need a "fast" guitar. I don't care about the look or the shape since I find them all ugly whether Strato or LesPaul or whatever. I don't care about accessing the highest treble notes.
I care only usability and sound.

What are the specs I should put on my list? Any brand you would recommend?

TIA

Nick

[gonechan]

hi nick


then what i would recommend you is,a strat(it can be either a Fender or it's economic line called Squire) or a 335(again could be a real Gibson or it's economic line ,Epiphone.335 are hollow body guitars,BB King stylee) ,a small valve amp and you'll be ready to go.i bought myself a guitar amp last month ,a small 15w Orange amp ,and i saw many amps on that range that are very cheap and good sounding.if you want something that you can carry around anywhere ,i recommend you a Pignose amp ,they're pretty small and powerfull with a great tone as well!you should also look into some kind of distortion/sustain pedal to use as a booster on the amp, this will make that bluesy sound happen,but this is not really necessary if the amp delivers a nice overdrive.
i discard the Les Paul models for blues,because i see it more as a jazz guitar .