I was having the same conflict when I was looking at strats. The salesman who played a strat as well told me some of the differences between the mexican and the usa is the quality of the parts. The frets on the american are nickel and the ones on the mexican are steel that are coated. There are some other differences in the pickguard and tuners. When I bought my Les Paul I bought the epiphone because there was not enough of a difference to me to pay the extra 2 grand. I slapped a couple of PRS Dragon II Humbuckers in it and now it sounds great! So I would just try and play the American and the Mexican without paying attention to which one you have in your hands and then see if you can tell the difference.