hey marlon.
there's one big problem with the internet, as far as guitar is concerned. long gone are the days where you had to physically
go downtown to your local music store, and ask advice from the supremely uninterested sales clerk there, who would invariably tell you to buy the guitar
he would buy (double neck kramer 6/12 with floyd rose bridges). it's a sad day. [/sarcasm]
look, here's the deal. you don't need to spend nearly that much (but if you've got it, and you want to, there's no reason you shouldn't). but the important thing isn't "what's the best guitar", the answer is all of them. for any style. you can play country on a les paul (keith urban does), or a stratocaster (vince gill does), or a telecaster (brad paisley does). you can play blues on a flying v (albert king did), or metal on a flying v (dave mustaine did). you can play alt/goth metal on a tele (john 5) or jazz on a telecaster (mike stern). you can play rock on a es-175 (george thorogood), or a telecaster (jimmy page, jeff buckley), or a stratocaster (stevie ray vaughan, eric clapton, david gilmour), or a les paul (slash, or anyone from "theory of a nicklefault"), or a flying v, or a danelectro, or a hockey stick with copper wire.
what you need isn't the right guitar for rock, or the best guitar for rock. you need the right guitar for
you, the best guitar for
you. you'll only find that by going to all sorts of guitar stores and playing as many as you can. you'll find that there's one that you keep going back to. that's the one you should buy, and who cares what it looks like, or what it says on the headstock? just buy it, and play rock on it
sorry i know that that doesn't help, lol. but you're getting excellent advice here on brands and models, and truth be told, these days, all the guitars are well made and aggressively priced. you literally can't go wrong (but i'd avoid a floyd rose if you're new to guitar, not because it's bad, but because it's complicated). but don't buy one because someone said it was the best for rock. buy one because it's the one that makes you play best.
