you have to consider a couple of things first before you buy a guitar. now that you've owned guitars before, by now you must have some idea of the sound that you want that's missing from the low end guitars that you own. so i'm guessing, you want to buy a better guitar- an upgrade if you will that will bring you to the next level of playing right? Ask yourself first the following questions: what's your style? what music are you trying to produce? what's your budget? Remember, you don't need to buy a very expensive guitar or a well- known brand name guitar just to get a good guitar. brand does not always equate to quality. just check out http://www.edroman.com to see what i mean. he has a lot of info about gibsons and prs that many people don't know about. to be honest, i believe there are a lot of guitars in the mid price range that would do the job. ibanezes, washburns, d'angelico, and epiphones for instance. i warn you that some people would tell you that these brands are crap but you should remember that not all guitars are the same- even the ones of the same model. You can get a crappy gibson les paul for 2k just as you can get a good quality gibson les paul depending on how smart a buyer you are. It's just a matter of being a smart buyer that's all. Always take your time and don't rush into spending. Always try as many guitars as you can- even guitars of the same model. And also, don't be afraid to ask a lot of questions! Make sure you get every buck that you spend worth it, and lastly, always visit more than two stores for the best bargain. That's what I did. I just upgraded from a samick strat (my first elec. guitar which i got when I was 13) to an epiphone les paul hollowbody. A lot of people made fun of me at first because everyone upgraded to prs and gibsons while I got a lower end epiphone. they said the epiphones were crap but when they tried mine, they were amazed at the sound. Even my luthier was surprised. He told me that my epi is one of the best sounding guitar that he's heard and that I lucked out on that one. I recently made mods to it like adding a tp 6 tail piece, 57 classic pickups, vintage grover tuners, graphtech ghost (piezo) and hexpander system (synthesizer and midi capabilites) and i've turned it from a beautiful sounding guitar into my dream guitar. I admit it's more versatile than most guitars and is one of the most beautiful sounding too if not the best to my ears- way better than my friend's gibsons and is more playable than my friend's prs santana.