Dang, ya need hip waders just to read through this thread! laugh

In the off chance that someone younger than dirt were to wander in here, my advice to them is just ignore the "experts" who insist you must have this degree or that level of music reading ability! Ask the 98% of Berklee graduates who work at the local MickyD's how that worked out for them!

If you are happy with tabs then use tabs. If you want to learn detailed music theory then by all means do that! Mainly, as several folks have said before...Just Have Fun!