I agree with Jcat55, Telecasters are nice guitars. You can grab the Fender Modern Player with a neck Tele pickup, a middle position strat pickup and a bridge humbucher for $399 or for around $249 to $299 you can get A Squier by Fender with dual humbuckers- if you prefer that humbucker sound. I do have a Squier Tele Custom with dual P90 pickups and I really like the guitar alot. If I could only buy just one guitar, however, I would chosse a Gibson SG with humbuckers. There are a lot of good deals on pre-2013 Gibsons out there right now (it seems Gibson wants the older stuff off the shelves) but as far as the 2013 Gibson models I'd seriously consider the new Gibson SG-J (with 490 and 498 pickups for that "famous" Gibson Sound) and selling new for only $599-order one from a place like Musician's Friend (online) and pay no tax and no shipping OR go to your nearest Guitar Center (owned by the same company as Musician's Friend) and point out the lesser cost by ordering it from MF and 9.5 times out of ten GC will send you out the door with that SG for $599 total. Good Luck-Jim