Anyway, is there a Guitar Center in your area? They typically sell most of the "popular" brands, including the expensive stuff. The neat thing though is you can try the guitars without any commitment, you so may be able to figure out what sounds best or feels best to you. As a newb you're probably not going to have any opinions though. Anyway, "prestigious" brands like Gibson and Fender have lower-end more affordable lines of their popular guitars. Squire is cheap Fender, and Epiphone is cheap Gibson. I've actually heard opinions of late that Epiphone is better than Gibson now because Gibson has gone to the shitter as far as quality control goes, and Epiphone has really improved. So, eh. I've seen online that the Epiphone Les Paul Special II is a great beginner guitar for the price.