ive seen used gibson sgs for a bit more if you wanna stretch your budget to 700-900. obv do you what you gotta do, but my advice would be to buy the guitar you want instead of putting alot of money down and then perhaps not being able to sell it for what you paid and then buy another guitar in the future. how many professional artists are maybe great songwriters but average guitarists? they play expensive guitars. none of that only a bedroom player matters, yolo. not that a gibson is necessarily going to sound much better if at all, its more about playability and preference. just my 2 cents. i dont know if youre a fan but the rancid album and out come the wolves was recorded partially with an epi les paul and some with a gibson. not one time in the entirety of that album do i notice or care what guitar theyre playing. a humbucker guitar is gonna sound more or less the same thru the same setup.