first electric

Ibanez makes pretty good electric guitars.  However, I'm biased toward the Stratocaster.  The Fender Squier line is still a good starting choice for electric guitar.  You can also get a Mexican made Strat for between $200 to $500 used/new!  The one I have sounds just as good as the US made one!

Epiphones are top great guitars for beginners, Schecter guitars are good choices as you get high quality for a relatively low price. I highly recommend ESP's LTD line of guitars, I bought the MH100 model, and it played like a pro model...

I had an Epiphone LP Studio that I recently sold!  Although I liked the sound, it was just too heavy for me to stand and carry it for two hours!  The Strat is much lighter, and has 5 different pick up selections to choose from.  I also like the thinner neck, where my hand moves around the neck a bit easier.  Just my two cents!

Hi Froot & others
There was a time when the "copy " guitars were a bit of a joke  but that was a long time ago , now most reputable companies make a decent guitar. As a full time guitar teacher I play all sorts of guitars in quick succession and   I play them all through the same Pod XT pedal board.  I have about 15 guitars and as well as a selection of acoustics  most of them are Strats I have a Strat Plus Deluxe /USA Standard strat/various Harley Benton"Copy" strats and a Line 6 Variax. I also play all my students guitars on a daily basis which consist of some more harley bentons , some squiers and some epiphones. The main noticable difference in the studio/bedroom levels is the feel of the instrument as the budget clone guitars have rough finish to mainly the fret ends compared to my strat plus and the Variax , but apart from that there is not a lot of difference!! I could play any of them on stage but the main difference there would be that I would have to tune the budget ones much more often and may have to make changes in my pedal board to compensate for the weak pickups and if there is a big lighting rig they would be "noisy" on stage at high gain levels.
What guitar you get depends on what you are going to do with it and although looks are a reason to buy a guitar that in my opinion is really the last consideration unless you are overly concerned with image. 

As Kahuna and Slaya both point out the "Strat" is a very good place to start. I didn't get a  strat until I had been playing for 20 years haveing wanted to be "different" not even playing a Gibson either but It was only when a got my first strat ,admittedly it was top of the range at the time but i realised what i had been missing all that time and how versatile it was .
So I would say get a Strat to start with, I recommend the harley benton budget strats that you can see here http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_gitarren_set_g13.htm
and i have done so since about  1998 and they have stood the test of time well and i have played hundreds of them!
If it's your first electric then you can get your foot in the door for very little money and if you out grow it you will be doing very well indeed and for your next guitar you will leap frog all the £150-250 guitars which cost a lot more but offer very little more than what you  already have.
hope this helps
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hey Slaya go to the pharmacy and get some "surgical Spirit" for the ends of your fingers they will toughen up in no time!
of course I didn't do that I played it 'till my fingers bled !

if i were to get a strat copy, i heard the Mexican one was the best.  can anyone back this up?  and, what brand is the mexican? is it just called a "mexican strat"?