I started playing guitar earlier this year myself. I have Guitar Hero I and II and decided to give the real thing a try! I've not played GH since I got my Jay Turser strat-copy guitar.
I personally love the black archtop there - the last one. SG's don't do anything for me.
And if you buy from a shop they can set it up for you - buying online (as I did) you get the guitar from a box and have to take it in to a shop to have it set up anyway, so whatever money you save online gets spent at a guitar shop, usually anyway. Plus, you can try them out at a guitar shop.
I actually want to get a LP style gee-tar here soon, in the under$300 range, though, so it'll probably be another Jay Turser or a used Epiphone prolly.
Before I die, I want a Dimebag Darrell model. Wicked sick. Hey, and what about the Gibson Corvus? [link=hyperlink url]http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3865/1712/1600/gibsoncorvusIII.1.jpg[/link]