Override comment.tpl.php file with theme Objective:
Override comment.tpl.php file output in drupal core modules.

Assumption:
My best guess is that I need to create a comment-[type].tpl.php file in my themes folder.

Requirements:


template.php can not be used
need to replace default comment.tpl.php html output 


Questions:


how do i find the so called type of the comment for the tpl file?
is this the best way to change the html output of the file?
is there another way to change the output with the type or using template.php?


Links: http://drupal.org/node/190815
You should be able to override Drupal's default comment.tpl.php file by copying it from /modules/comment into your theme directory. From there, edit the file as needed. Then clear the cache (on the Admin > Site configuration > Performance), so that the theme cache will get rebuilt and your new theme file will get recognized.

You would only need to rename comment.tpl.php to comment-[type].tpl.php, if you wanted to override comment theming differently for different node types.