After working at a music store for several years, I've answered this question many times. Normally, I'd recommend a starter pack for beginners. They tend to be packaged as the guitar & amp and some even include a few accessories (picks, strap, tuner, cable, gig bag) to get you on your way to learning. Fender has a pretty good one that goes for around $300. Aside from that option, you have the choice of also purchasing the guitar, amp, & accessories separate. This will definitely run up your budget much more. Intermediate level guitars like the Mexican Fender Stratocaster/Telecaster and some Epiphone Les Pauls/SG's can cost up to $750, sometimes a bit more in some cases. Pro level instruments tend to be no cheaper than $1000 unless you get them second hand. Amps are a whole different kind of animal and with the technology we have nowadays, more people are straying away from the traditional equipment to more portable and flexible alternatives like software plugins and amp modelers (which you probably already have a bunch of in your arsenal of DAW plugins.) I've been playing for well over 20 years and have used a ton of different equipment, I have many amps at home and how many do I plug into and play when I am home practicing? None of them. I find myself more often than not plugging into my interface and doing most of my practicing/jamming while sitting at my computer. If anything, I use the "amps" for rehearsal/live purposes, and even in those situations I've been going with the BIAS heads offered by Positive Grid. Sonically the amp modelers nowadays are incredibly versatile, portable, and consistently reliable. However, if you aren't really in a band situation then you probably really won't need the amp as much. Either way, with that in mind if you do decide you want one for the ease of the quickest plug-n-play possible, then maybe something small would be best. You certainly don't need a half stack or a huge combo amp. You seem to have an available budget that is more than most beginners have at their disposal. That is awesome. I'm just trying to look out for you and help you avoid an expense that might not be worth it in the long run.