I'm starting to give my nephew guitar lessons, so a couple of weeks back I went to the local music store to get him his first electric guitar. After playing some squires and eppiphones and other makes within budget (€250) we tried out a guitar branded Vintage. I'd never seen them before but I was blown away by the sound I was getting from such an inexpensive guitar. On top of that it had an amazing feel and neck with the action setup perfectly. We bought the PRS style guitar - see link below.

I've since come across these guitars in the UK guitar magazines where they are getting great reviews (not sure if you can get them in the US). They are made in Vietnam and have wilkinson hardware and pickups. Check out the link below - I'm seriously considering getting one of the Icon series (Aged) strats and going at it with my soldering iron! The aged finish looks awsome to me.

http://www.jhs.co.uk/vintageelectric.html