pain right in the ass, nobody carries anything, in bigger stores you can usually find one LesPaul, one Strat, and one Tele, one acoustic and maybe one cheaper other brand. The "other" brands are never any better than my Kramer and even Strats(american) are out of my price range today and not what I want for the heavy riffs, but other wise I love the Strat sound. LP's forget about it, aint gonna pay that kind of money. I was lucky with the Kramer & Vantage, both were used and I stumbled on them, both pretty decent guitars. The quality of the Vantage ($225) is excellent and sounds nearly as good as a LP to my ears (less sustain), excellent action too, but then I needed a more "metal" guitar and found the Kramer, $275 and I was in business with a real floyd rose and a single coil neck Pup for the clean stuff.
Still dont have an acoustic, my first guitar was a $20 Montgomery Wards acoustic with 1/4" action......

best way to get calouses fast, sold it after I got my first (right handed) cheap "Clovis" electric back in the early 70's

, wasnt a bad guitar after I narrowed and reshaped the neck, cut a 1" half moon out of the "proper" cutaway, put a Gibson humbucker in the bridge position, sanded off the fire engine red paint and made it natural, it had maple veneer top and back which looked pretty good.
Ah the good 'ol days ...........
