Electric guitars would be nothing today without Leo Fender. Try out some combinations of the Strat/Tele's with different pickup combos. I personally like the straight up 3 single coil Strats, and the classic pickups on Teles, but to each his own. The humbucker bridge pickups on the Strats can open up huge spaces in tonal variety, so don't rule them out. As for other companies worth checking out, Gibson is a bit above your price range unless you can find a decent one used. The Gibson Blueshawk is a smaller bodied, semi-hollow guitar that normally retails for near $800, they sound great. Hamer also makes some really nice guitars, offering both extremely high end customs guitars and everyday low to mid range guitars with quality craftsmanship and components. As was mentioned above Ibanez and Schechter should also be checked out, Ibanez has more of a variety of actual guitar styles, and wood/pickup combinations that would give you a good place to start. Schecters are basically all the same with different appoinments, inlays and nicer materials. That should be a good start for you there, unless you wanted a guitar that you can "shred" on, more metal influenced tone. Then you would want to look more into BC Rich, or Jackson. They offer lower profile necks and generally hotter pickups. Basically, take your money and hit up a few shops, plug in to an amp that is similar to what you play and spend a few hours trying to find the guitar that fits what you are looking for.