Spending the money on a "quality" guitar is no guarantee. For instance, my LP Standard is with the luthier having the fretboard inlays reglued. Last week two of them started lifting at the corner.

In addition to my LP Standard, I have a faded LP Studio. This is the low of the low end of a guitar that says "Gibson" on the headstock. I've been playing this guitar since my other one was dropped of for repair. Well this guitar holds up quite well to it's higher end cousin. OK, I had to replace the pickup selector switch, but that was easy.

So just be aware that higher cost doens't necessarily mean higher quality in both sound or playability.