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

[nickdaum]

Thanks for all the inputs, folks!

Actually, not being a professional, I'm often puzzled by the jargon used here. So far for me an amp is an electronic device that needs speakers. I looked the Ibanez "amps" and all of them are combos. I already own a complete, excellent sound system plugged on my sound interface. It's not meant for stage performance but the complete system delivers a perfect sound. I don't plan to play on stage anyway. I leave that to you, folks ;-) It'll be a hobby for me.

My plan was to plug the guitar directly on the FW Solo 1/4" input. When I travel I'll plug a headset.

I concur with Luke about not being too technical.

I looked at the Quier and Epiphone catalogs. Most are out of my budget. Moreover I saw Yamahas with better specs for the same price (3 mikes including 2 double loop, for example).
What about a Yam or an Ibanez? The entry level models with good specs are around $250-300.

Remember I’m not a professional and I plan to play alone ;-)

Nick