used parker p-series guitars are high quality and you can normally snag one from around $300-$500 (they're discontinued so you have to search ebay). the prs SE series guitars are also high quality guitars for around the $500 price range.

ignore anyone who says gibson makes a quality guitar. they're more than likely too inexperienced to understand what a good guitar is or haven't played on any recent gibsons. gibson is hit or miss; epiphone is shoddy wiring and cheap tuners/hardware; fender is hit or miss but you don't pay an arm and a leg like with gibson; ibanez is annoyingly mediocre to the point of making you want to buy one then hate it after a few months; carvin are quality guitars but really, who the hell buys a carvin? it's like riding a moped; jackson is normally nice metalhead guitars; ltd is surprisingly quality, you can score a quality les paul copy for around $600 and it be better than a lot of gibson's les pauls.


that's just my personal opinion on everything....play the stuff yourself. heed my warnings....but play it for yourself, you might end up loving something i'd think is a crap guitar but it gets the tone and feel you're looking for....i just wrote up a more generalized guideline of some guitar brands.