Just picked up a $40 Lightsnake 1/4" to USB Guitar/Bass/Keyboard cable at Target.

Works great. Tried it out during lunch at work and gotta say, it works great, especially for $40.

It is a cheap way to add guitar to computer recording capability.

I tried it out on my old corporate lap top using ProTracks and Sony Soundforge, worked well with both programs. Latency is very low and since it serves as a soundcard, my poor old computer was not taxed a bit. In fact during recording, ProTracks showed 0% CPU usage.

It was a no-brainer to setup on my XP computer.

I recorded both acoustic and electric guitar. The cable includes a 20db boost, so virtually any acoustic pickup will work. I was not happy with the acoustic recording due to eq issues. The electric recordings turned out okay, given I monitored-mixed them using the laptop speaker.

JackStrat

http://www.thewoodshop.20m.com/music/lightsnake-test01.mp3