You are going to need to look at the higher end of that price range, the lowest price ranges tend to have problems with durability, overall playability, and sound quality. A lot of the starter line guitars should be avoided at any cost - avoid anything cheap with a tremolo (especially Floyd Rose types, Ibanez Edge, etc.) because the cheap versions will require setup and often just don't stay in tune. Check out the ESP 50 series (i.e. M-50, F-50, etc) which start around $199, or Schecter. Every BC Rich guitar under the NJ series is essentially the same thing, so look at the Bronze Warlock or Assassin/ASM as they sometimes go on good sales from the big chains (I saw those for $99 last week, the best metal guitar in that price range though still not great). I would avoid Dean and Ibanez guitars, their quality tends to be horrendous.