If you spend the money & get A high end guitar you'll never have to purchase another guitar again, you just keep tradin them in. The 2nd guitar I ever bought was a Gibson Les Paul off my brothers freind & I never payed full vaue for another guitar since . So in the long run you end up savin money. Expect to pay $400-600 for anything decent though, Check out Shecter, or if you can get your hands on a used japaneese strat go for it, there pretty decent, check e-bay.