I totally agree with you about the bad fret work on Ibanez electrics. Combine that with cheap electronics, and a neck made of three or more seperate pieces of wood, they're a tonal nightmare (i'm referring to the strat style ones, the Iceman is pretty damn cool).
I'd stay away from ESP as well. I've done a lot of tech work on a custom made ESP that cost over $2000, and despite the price, and great electronics (piezo trans, Duncans and coil splits), it was a tonal nightmare. It's shocking how terrible this guitar sounded.
AtomicMassUnit