Actually "Gene" was never a broke a**...the Band was, Ace and Peter were...Paul was doing ok...but Gene had money. Not by today's standards, but comparing him to other musicians and bands. He had a decent job, and saved money every way he could...including not eating out, not partying, and not having his own place. He also was buying and re-selling comics for profit way before anyone even thought of that.
In his book, Gene said he originally bought used 100 watt tube Marshall amps, and he would make money by renting them to other bands. Gene and Paul were introduced because Gene had better gear than most people at the time, and because Paul wrote his own songs too. Since then, he has owned pretty much everything, and came to the decision that he didn't really care...He would make what ever his tech wanted to use work.
The last I heard, he had gone Geddy, and was just using a Sansamp. But he's been on the road along time, and you can find someone to argue different setups...but that is because he has used different amp setups for different tours...including no amp. I read an interview once where he said he had a building full of amps, and he didn't really care which amps the tech pulled out to tour with..it didn't matter at all to him.
