The first item on my list of helpful guitar equipment is a Korg electric guitar tuner. This is much easier to use than trying to tune to a test tone on the internet. A microphone picks up the sound from the guitar (or you can plug the instrument cable directly into it) and a gauge shows you the tune. All you have to do is make tiny adjustments until the needle and light show tuned. Then you move to the next string and so on.
The next two things I bought are an extra cable and an effects pedal. The pedal allows me to add distortion (and other effects) to the sound of the guitar to get that proper rock sound. The guitar plugs into the pedal and the pedal plugs into the amp with the extra cable. Easy.
The pedal I got in the end is the Digitech RP55 multi effect pedal. Without listing all the sales jargon, it has more effects and features than I know what to do with. Sounds good though. There is a list on the Digitech website to setup the RP55 to sound like any guitarist or band you could think of, you just select the effect and set the value according to a chart. Easy!