personally i have always been a strat guy, i hate gibsons and epiphones, just dont like the ugly shape of a lespaul or sg, i dont realy like the tone they get either. to tell you the truth i think the squier sucks to but it has alot more bang for the buck than any epiphone ive played, the only thing that sucks about the squier is the pickups and the tuning pegs so replace them and then youve gott a awesome guitar that will out play any epiphone at any price, of course this is just my opinion and im sure others wont view it this way lol. but realy i havnt likes the gibsons for a long time they are selling there guitars on a old name that died along time ago when they left kalamazoo mich. and they are charging a ridiculous price for them, heck you can by a vintage lespaul cheaper than a knew one and there is no way in hell id pay that much for a guitar that was made by a damn program in a machine lol. i have a mexican made strat and i put tex specials in it and id dare say it plays far better than any epi or gibson ive ever touched. it just feels wright in my hands where a lespaul feels unbalnced to me, and the neck feels like a block of wood on most pauls ive played. anyway id buy a new herritage before a gibson they are made wright here in michigan and they rock.