Hello!

I'm an intermediate acoustic guitar player, and I don't really know how to phrase my question – I'm not even sure I know what my question is, or what kind of advice I'm looking for (but here goes):

As mentioned above, I'm an intermediate guitar player... when playing the acoustic guitar. I have a Gibson Les Paul Signature "T" and an Epiphone Les Paul Standard (not currently set up), but I almost never play them. And by "almost never", I mean "never". Why? Because I don't know how! I am a complete newbie when it comes to playing the electric guitar. Whenever I pick up my Gibson, it feels like a completely different instrument. Sure, I can do the usual acoustic strumming, flatpicking or fingerstyle stuff, but here are my main problems:

1) The sound is uninspiring. I only have a cheap Kustom 10W amp, and I've never owned (or used) a pedal in my entire life. Do I need to buy pedals? Because I don't know anything about pedals. A more expensive (tube) amp? Because I know nothing about amps either. Or do I simply not know how to play, i.e. produce the sound I want using my fingers?

2) From a technique perspective: I'm currently listening to a lot of Japanese pop/rock, and two of my favorite Japanese guitarists are Ichiro Ito (Every Little Thing) and Ryo Owatari (Do As Infinity) (I've linked to the guitar solo of two pretty random songs). My question is: It obviously takes many years of practice before getting there, but what is the fastest way to learn how to play somewhat like them? I know it makes no sense, but I feel that it is incredibly hard to apply my knowledge of how to play the acoustic guitar. Is there perhaps a secret skill that links together acoustic and electric guitar playing? ;)

Thanks a lot, and I apologize in advance for the extremely vague questions!