What kind of sound are you going for exactly?
Jackson guitars are typically maple necks with poplar bodies which give sort of a versatile yet indistinct sound to them. However, their stock pickups lack clarity. Ibanez are usually basswood bodies and maple necks, and have a similar sound to Jacksons and have equally bad stock pickups. Keep in mind with all of these Japanese guitars that: 1) 24 fret guitars cause the bridge pickup to be moved closer to the neck which often sacrifices warmth (midrange frequencies) 2) Floyd rose and other floating trems cause loss of sustain and typicall intonation problems, especially when detuning, and always there is the issue of going out of tune 3) If you have a floating trem, get a guitar with straigh string pull. Ibanez has this I believe, but Jackson does not.
Gibson Gothics are all mahogony I believe, which means they will excel in bassy rhythm crunching, but will lack definition in your lead sound.
Higher ends Gibson Les Pauls have mahogany necks and bodies with maple tops. This gives you a warm bassy sound but the maple brightens it up slightly to provide some punch to your leads. Gibson necks are quite thick though, and not for everyone.
PRS is basically a Gibson with better construction and a better neck, but its $1500 - $2000, so probable not realistic.
Fenders (at least the higher end ones) have maple necks and ash or alder bodies, which tend to give you that bright soaring lead sound like David Gilmour has. However, if you get 3 single coils basically your rhythm sound will blow in metal applications, but a h-s-s configuration isn't to bad.
The reason I recommend a Carvin is because you can select the woods and options you like. They have all of the afore mentioned wood choices plus many more.
...sorry just had to do that... 
