i had an epiphone sg that i got for my 19th bday which i consider my first real guitar. actual first one was this random washburn that i got for my 17th. anyways i self taught and now both of these guitars have problems not worth fixing as i think i have outgrown them greatly. looking for a new guitar for around 250-350. thinking a used hellraiser but just wanted to know what you guys think.

Schecter or ESP LTD in that price range is your best bet. Look for a used guitar in good shape to cut more off of the price, since there's a massive difference in quality in what's available around $300 new and what you can find for 300-350 used. Some of the older LTD 300 series are great and you can find them around 300-350. If you can stretch your budget a bit more, the best thing you can get would be a used LTD 400 series from when they came with brand-name pickups (EMG or Duncan) and Grover tuners. The main difference here is that most ESP+Schecter models are going to have XJ frets, while your Epiphone SG has flatter frets - I prefer the XJ by a mile, but some people like the flatter frets that Gibson uses.

Ima gonna second this - the value for money is astounding.

Although you can get some superb Korean Fenders, very soft to play

This post was edited by bob(Cs2) on Feb 24 2013 06:33am

Depending what kinda music you play, LTD's are a bang for your buck and sound great with metal/hard rock kinda stuff! Not to mention the cleans are awesome as well!