Do you have a music store in town that has the guitars you are looking at? I would suggest going down and playing on them for awhile. When my Kramer got stolen I spent a good month researching on line what I wanted to purchase. I ended up selecting a Schecter c1 classic. I went to Guitar Center ready to buy. (Found my stolen Kramer on their used shelf, but that is another story). I picked up several Schecters, some Gibsons and Epiphones, but finally settled on a Fender Strat. It is a "made in china" guitar and some people would look at is a cruddy guitar for that. For me, it feels right in my hands and sounds good when I play. Or at least no worse than playing guitars that cost 3 times as much. The short of the story is, play on them and decide what is good for you. Don't buy a label to impress people. But then, I don't flip my strat over to everyone and show the made in china label either ;).