Hi there!

i think i had pretty much the same choice as you when i bought my first guitar. I already had an old fender squire that my dad had given me, but i wanted a SHINY NEW ONE, and i ended up going with a cheap ibanez (GAX70).
i paid it off and bought it home, so excited and in love with it's shiny silver-ness and it's fancy twin humbuckers... but in the months to come, i realised I still much preferred the beat up old squire, it seems so much 'easier' to play?...
I never really used the ibanez, and i ended up saving up and buying a burns...

So in my experience the cheap fender was better than the cheap ibanez.
I AM a girl though, and i think the reason there is such a difference between guitars for me might have something to do with my weak female fingerrrs?

Anyway, the best way to choose would be, of course, to play them and then pick :thumbsup:

(or to buy a burns :P )


EDIT: i forgot to mention that if you do pick an ibanez, you will have to deal with people screaming METTAAALLL!!! when they see it...