Get an ESP, if not the best they are one of the best. If money is a problem, get an Ibanez, they are decent quality for cheap. Dont get the cheapest, you will later regret it. Make sure the guitar has good pickups most of all (dont get single-coils, I recomend EMG pickups).

If you can, get a 7-string.

7 string? hahaah not really for beginners considering, he wont be tunning down much or anything, 7 string is totally unneccessary

Epiphone are good Either Les Paul or SG, either a special ( if you want the cheaper option) or anything else,

Squire are good too, teles and strats are a good cheap option,

mind you alot will rely on the sound your amp produces and actaully how good you are at palying the thing,

I would start on an acoustic, to strenghten your fingers etc, and learn scales to get speed and co ordination going, then move to an electric that way its alot easier, but thats just what I did, no rules saying you have to or anything

I can't believe nobody asked him what style of music he plays. Honestly Grim, an ESP is good for heavy metal and that's it. They're utter shit for anything else.

Best advice is ask a friend who has played guitar for at least four or five years to come with you to a music shop and help you find what you like. Get him/her to play some of the music you like on lots of different guitars, and discuss what he/she thinks of each FOR THAT STYLE. Bear in mind that a guitar designed to play heavy metal (ESP being #1 metal guitar) will sound like CRAP doing blues or indie strumming stuff. similarly, a Fender Strat, the standard for things like blues, country, funk and mainstream pop/rock (I'm thinking like Matchbox 20, Maroon Five etc) can't get a decent metal crunch. As a beginner, your ears won't be able to really differentiate what is "good" and what is "bad" beyond the blatantly obvious stuff, so get someone you trust, with lots of experience, to help you choose, and explain along the way. You'll learn what to listen for.

Play as many guitars as you can be bothered with, in lots of different price ranges, to understand what it is you're after. Once you've narrowed it down to two or three guitars that you really like, within your budget, try playing the same thing on each one. Maybe play a few chords or a riff or something. How does it feel? How does it feel to slide your hand up and down the neck? It is easier to play chords on one than the others? A good rule of thumb is the easier it is play, the better the design and the better it has been set up. It's the shop's responsibility to make sure the guitar has fairly fresh strings, is in tune and has been set up properly - if it isn't, it could make you think the guitar is crap, when it isn't. These are things that an experienced player knows, and he/she will help you avoid the pitfalls. DON'T listen to the salesman - he (its almost always a he) will say whatever it takes to get you to buy - those cheap guitars (i.e. less than $500) are cheap for a reason. They're shit. He'll tell you all sorts of stuff about how it's made to US standards (in Korea) and how the American luthier goes to Korea once a month and gives a seminar or whatever. Just smile and nod then ask your friend. The salesman will probably be a little overweight, smell a bit sweaty and have bad facial hair. Often he'll get hold of the guitar and shred the balls off it, to impress you. Smile. Nod. Tell him he's awesome so he can indulge in a little false modesty.

Better yet, ask a teacher to accompany you to the shop (note hilarious music pun) to help you choose. Most of us have at some stage bought a piece of crap because we didn't know any beter, and will happily help less experienced friends avoid the same mistake.

Here's a quick run down of the most popular models. Purely my opinion, of course....:

Gibson Les Paul: Labour
Best all rounder, hands down. You wanna rock? Treble pickup. Something clean, maybe some RHCP or jazz? Bridge pickup. Something in between? Two seperate volume knobs means you can blend the two. what else do you want? I am a Les Paul owner, and I LOVE them. However, heinously expensive - get a second hand one off trademe if you're going to get one. oh and play it first - sometimes they are absolute pigs.

Fender Stratocaster: National
Another good all rounder. More known for clean or breaking up (overdriven) sounds than full on hard rock distortion. Good if you're doing a lot of chordal (strumming) playing, as opposed to mainly rocking out.

From here on in, I'll stick with just the brand overall, rather than the models.

Epiphone: Greens
Essentially a budget Gibson. Epiphone make very good guitars for the money, and play lots of them - you'll often find one in about ten that really kicks the ass out of the others. Maybe they do that on purpose....

Washburn: United Future
Very good value. the hollow body Washburns are really excellent, and only cost about $1200 new. Bargain. I'd buy one if I needed a hollow body. Their other guitars are usually pretty good too.

Samick/JD borthers/Ashton: Christian Heritage
Yes, Christian Heritage. Do you want me to go into details? No I didn't think so. Just awful. Ashton would be Graham Capill specifically. Horrid.

Langcaster: Independant
Fucking unreal guitars. Made in NZ. Expensive as hell, but truly amazing - I played one of the Telecasters Jo Lang makes, and it smokes a real Tele - tone to burn, sustains for days, plays like a dream. Awesome instruments. Worth the dough.

Hope it helps.

Next time : Amps, as represented by cities.

on guitars i play a mixture of punk, metal, indie, whatever (mostly noodling about, my main music love is computers) , i brought a semi-cheap ibanez around 2 years ago - 300 bucks second hand from cashies . it sounds fantastic, especially for nasty metally stuff, haven't had any problems with neck bending or other build defects, i think ibanez are are a good balance between quality and 'name' - you tend to pay a premium for brands like gibson - they are good guitars, but the extra price is hard to justify, perhaps when you have learnt for a year or 2 and really know what you want in a guitar, then you buy a nice expensive gibson or whatever.

on a side note, buy some decent cables - they do make a big difference.