Another one to keep in mind is Kramer. I play a 1986 Kramer Nightswan Viv Campbell Signature with a Dimebucker in the bridge position and a Floyd Rose bridge, and it fucking screams. All together, I spent under $500 on it (they didn't know what they had though, but any Kramer will rock from that timeframe). Another amp recommendation would be an older model Crate, pre-dsp days when the on-board was still a knob and not a digital press-button. My GX40C has held up for over a decade, and it was almost 20 years old when I got it then. Eventually you'll want a tube amp, either a Mesa, Ampeg, or Marshall JCM 800 (
) but until then, a nice combo can fill the roll quite nicely. As long as it's got a lot of low end punch, you can even juice up the distortion sound by using the clean channel and a distortion pedal (Boss Metal Zone or Digitech Metal Master come to mind, as I've had both and both pwn).