At the risk of singing the same tune continually while still a newbie, speak to Tokai SA on this forum, who's going to be distributing Japanese made Tokai guitars in SA. I've been researching them online, and I'm totally sold. Best value "classic 50's" guitars available.
The cheapest MIJ models are unquestionably better than Epiphones, and for all but the electronics, even the cheapest ones are better than modern Gibsons - the more expensive models compete with the custom shop gibson reissues for quality. It's hard to know what the cheapest model (LS-80/85) will go for here in the shops, but it's likely to be very competitive with Epiphone for price, but blow them out of the water in terms of quality. Oh, also, they have the same headstock shape as guitars from the big G.
Some links:
http://www.tokaiguitar.de/produkte.php?rubrik=1&rechts=3
http://www.tokaiforum.com/index.php
http://www1.odn.ne.jp/tokaigakki/products/
British review of the cheapest MIJ Tokai:
I believe some of the limited run Epiphones have been wonderful. But the ones I've played do not quite seem to be such hot quality - although I'm sure it's possible to get a good one. And of course, there are tons going second hand, so you get to test em and get 'em cheap ?
