my question is how much are you looking to spend?
My opinion having played guitar for the last 12 years is do not buy an epiphone as their all made in china now anyways...nor should you buy brands like BC Rich or Carlo Robelli(sam ash brand).
My suggestion for you is to buy used from craigslist or the like and take someone knowledgeable with you when you do, a few brands that I suggest are Schecter, Fender, Ibanez(not the cheap ones though), Gretsch or even yamaha(not the strat clones though).
I own a schecter and two fender american strats and a squire strat that actually says made in america on the headstock(I got the squire for free), I also own a Yamaha F310 Acoustic(which even though it's a cheap guitar it sounds great) and a Squire Acoustic(which also sound great despite being a cheap guitar) and have owned an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus(great looking guitar but it sounded like garbage), A BC Rich Mocking Bird(gave it to a friend who didn't own a working guitar), a squire II strat(that got stolen) and a piece of garbage no name les paul clone with a bolt on neck that my bro got for $25.
Honestly if you buy a lower end guitar it can sound pretty decent if you put good strings on it.....I'm not talking ernie ball slinkies, those are junk....get yourself some d'addarios or some DR's(I highly recommend DR's).
And change your strings at least every six months or more depending how much play time they get. if you play at least 2 -3 times a week change them every month.
