Welcome aboard Epi! I got an Epi for Christmas myself, but have been playing acoustic for 5 yrs and I'm finding out the electric is a different beast entirely. For instance a lot of open chords just don't sound right on my electric. That being said, when I have the gain / crunch turned up, I'm playing just about 100% barre chords or power chords. That being said, advice from a fellow rookie would be to spend your time learning power chords, or "Fifth chords" as they are also known. They are a lot easier than learning a bunch of open chords so consider this good news. Also, I understand tabbing something if we're talking about a lead riff. But when we're talking about 5 power chords, why bother? I see all these songs tabbed out---6 printed pages, and when you look at it, it's a handfull of power chords. I just don't get the whole tab thing when we're talking rhythm guitar.
Oh, and advice? Practice, practice, practice. You will be frustrated, your fingers will hurt, you will be ready to sell the thing on e-bay, but like someone said the other day, every great guitarist started out with those same feelings & just had the determination to work through them.
ALWAYS have fun...oh, and practice.
And then practice some more.
And don't forget to practice.
Did I mention you should practice?
Oh, and I forgot something--there is an old saying, "How do you eat an elephant", and the answer is "One bite at a time". Learning the guitar is sort of like that--it's a huge undertaking, wanting to learn and perform, but you have to aproach it one bite at a time. For instance, I'm going home tonight, and I am going to work (like, playing guitar is actually "work") for 2 hours switching between 6 power chords. Actually, three chords but I want to hit both of them at two different positions on the neck. Set small daily goals...small bites...and go for it!