Depends on how much you have to spend, you can get a great Gibson or Gretch hollow body electric guitar in the $800-1200 range. or a great american fender strat for $799-$1600

i just recently bought an Eric Clapton signature series fender strat ($1600) and play it through my Fender Hot Rod series Blues jr. amp, and I gets all the blues i need. plus i can get classic rock, 70/80's rock tone from it as well. In my opinion only.. the fender is more versatile compared to the hollow bodies guitars. When i came to this site (Guitar Tricks) i comitted myself to go through all the lessons 1&2 and all 1&2 rock/country/blues, all i have left is the blues portion to complete. It is a really great learning tool. while i was in there, they had sections on the different tones from guitars and amps. real great suff check it out.. and my motto is to go big or go home, the good thing about guitar center is you can always finance the guitars for up to a year with no interest. check out the way this site demos all the cool sounds/tones from different guitars they use hollow bodies and fenders.. BBg