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!



well ,i thiunk you'll probably get many different answers regarding guitars ,is a very personal thing,imagine that some people love more their axes than their wives
in my opinion ,as i expressed before ,is that you'll need a guitar ,like a Stratocaster,an amp(preferably tube ridden) and a cable to connect them.
why an amp? it's the tone ,you can get the new 'PLUGMEICANDOANYTHING'effect ,but nothing compares to a real tube amp ,more if you're intend to play blues ,guitar+overdriven tube amp is the sound you're looking for.most amps,like the low range Fenders come with a spring reverb and an effect loop which will let you output the signal to your audio interface.
let's say that an amp is the other half of your guitar.
(gotta work,will continue later)