if you're looking for a good deal on an electric, I recommend checking out http://www.rondomusic.com/electricguitar.html . Their guitars are surprisingly good quality for the price, especially once you get into their 'Agile' brand. If for whatever reason you want a more 'well-known' brand, I've found Ibanez, Dean, and Schecter to have pretty consistent quality on their budget guitars, and the PRS SE series is excellent if you can afford to go that route.

Otherwise if you don't want an electric, I would recommend a good nylon string guitar. Yamaha makes pretty good ones, but as with any acoustic, it's a lot harder to judge how you'll like them without actually trying them first.