If you want to record any instrument you will need a better soundcard (capable of lower latency = the time between you produce the sound on your guitar and it is recorded in a program). There are loads of audio interfaces (Tascam, M-Audio)- the only issue you may have is drivers for them, however M-audio audiophile 2496 (a pci card - so it's not good for laptops) works fine with most of the linux distributions. I've successfully installed it on Debian, Ubuntu, Suse, Fedora, Centos. (Instructions are on alsa website). If you have a laptop, you will need something different from PCI, for example: usb (google it first to find out if there are linux drivers for it, also check alsa website for a list of supported audio cards. If you don't know how to spend money
, you can buy one of those RME cards, they are really professional cards used in some studios. Apparently, they work well with linux, however, I they cost over £300! Fortunately, for your home studio it is not necessary, my audiophile costs around £40.
Furthermore, you will need to recompile the kernel to enable low-latency (or install one of the music distros. eg. ubuntu studio - low latency kernel is the default kernel)
Having a mixer is not necessary, but useful if you have more than one source of sound, e.g a computer, a laptop, a guitar, etc. and only one pair of speakers.
Also if you are thinking of recording the guitar more seriously, sooner or later you will need a pair of studio monitors (speakers that don't filter the sound, but reflect everything as it really is - it's very useful in mastering the song)
hth
