Mason (soon to be 14) has finally found something that he's pretty good at and likes to practice - guitar. So far he's been learning on an accoustic guitar but for his birthday/Christmas he'd really like an electric. He has a number of buddies learning guitar too which is part of my dilemma. My goal isn't to get him the best, but one that's suitable for a new player and at the same time won't make him owner of the crappiest axe among his peers. Several of his friends families have much more money than we do so having the "best" ain't going to happen.

His guitar teacher gave us three options that he thought would be good:

An Ibaneez starter pack

Epihone SG or Les Paul

A cheap Paul Reed Smith (apparently cheap here means 500 bucks)

My brother who has a degree in Classical guitar said that to invert the list would give me his choices from top to bottom as to the best guitars. After an online search I'm leaning towards the Epihone Les Paul 100 which is about 300. Good choice? Any others to add to the list?

I'll also need to be grabbing a practice amp and I'll want to keep that around 100 if possible and if you have "the one" I'd love to hear about it.

j? Swish? Rick? Nobody? Anybody???

Regards,
jc