Okay, to slightly go of the subject this thread seems to b on now i see nobody' mentioned Jackson when discussing alternatives, and they are nice guitars. The one's i've played are in the DK series and they handle nicely....although after playing my les paul i felt the strings on the jackson were slightly wider apart but I got used to that after about half an hour. Plus I play metal which Jackson's were supposedly designed for....or so i was told, but they responded well when i put some blues through them.