The nitro finish is what original strats had, as that was the car paint of the era. It lets the wood resonate much better than the poly finishes. It also ages beautifully. Just need to be more careful if you are precious about dents and scratches. I couldn't care less!
Travel guitars are an interest of mine, I have a design that is all but prototyped. There are a myriad of options out there, I don't really care for the sound of them to be fair. I have carried a uke or a mandolin on hiking trips. One of my best friends carries his banjo everywhere, I have actually come along a trail and heard him before I saw him.
That wee Vox has quite the reputation now, I would be interested to see who has been using them in the studio, as they would lend themselves quite well.
The Zappa tones. Books have been written on them. Clean strat is a great place to start if you are emulating the later stuff. He played incredibly clean later on, despite the enormity of his rig. (Har har!)
One or two of the Youtube movies of Dweezil going through his dad's gear set up are enlightening. You can pretty much clone the whole system now using plugins for Cubase or similar.
Gilmour is another guy who uses enormously complex rigs for relatively simple output.
Must try out one of those Voxs on a long term basis, have practically retired my old Champs, they reside in London, just can't put them through transportation these days. Have been playing around with a bunch of small output amps since moving house up here. The VHT Special Six is probably louder than a Champ but it takes pedals really well. I am getting too old for high sound pressures anyway.