Hello, glad you like the site!
Jonny doesnt “avoid” that – he is deliberately causing the Space Echo’s repeats to distort. Perhaps you just dislike that sound.
Also, it may seem obvious but be sure to turn down the input gain (rather than the master volume) on your amp by an amount corresponding to how much you increase the gain on the pedal, if you don’t want to cause the amp to distort as well.
Basically any solid body of wood with a Lace Sensor Blue and a Lace Sensor Red Dually is going to sound practically identical to a Tele Plus V1.
The resonance of the solid body has little to no effect on the vibration of the strings, and subsequently on what the pickups detect. If you do hear any difference between two solid-body guitars with the same pickups, it’s almost certainly due to differences between the particular pickups themselves (for example, two 1964 Gibson Les Pauls will have slightly different tones due to the pickups being hand-wound and therefore inconsistent in the number of coil windings. Lace Sensors aren’t actual coil pickups, but there may still be some subtle variation between modern ones and those produced 20 years ago).
If you’re on a budget it would suffice. But be aware that it’s significantly lower wattage than the Eighty-Five, so you wouldn’t be able to gig with it (and probably not practice with a drummer eighty). If you want a Fender Solid-state amp, I’d recommend picking up one of the 85′s on eBay for ~$250.