Also remember you can get guitars that can serve two purposes / get two different sounds (or more).
I bought a PRS SE 24 Custom (made in Korea) for a very low price (I think it was $300!) and it is a totally solid and beautiful guitar with a coil tap, so I use it for all my clean strat-type sounds as well as heavy humbucker and classic rock rhythm stuff. Also love the tremolo on it. It's my all-around go-to electric.
-Carl.
Carl King[br]GuitarTricks Video Director / Producer