Hello there,
Frankly, if you have the skill you can make any guitar sound good. I see a lot of Squier trashing on here. I have heard guys play Squier Strats that sounded great. I have a few Squiers here that I play some.
First thing you must do is decide if you want a whammy bar. It is not practical to add a tremolo bridge to an inexpensive guitar that does not have one. So decide, whammy bar yes or no. If no, then you look at the fixed bridge guitars. If yes, then look at the guitars with tremolo bridges.
Fixed bridge guitars. The common ones are Les Paul, SG and Telecasters. The Les Paul and the SG are going to sound a lot alike. They will feel a lot different. The Tele has a distanct twangy tone. Either you love it or you hate it. Not a lot in between. The humbucking pickups on the Epiphones (Les Paul or SG) will handle distortion better than a single coil pickup like the Tele. The single coil pickups do clean better.
Tremolo bridge guitars. Here you are looking at Strats and Strat clones. Since the Strat is such a versatile guitar and has such a nice clean tone, I would think it would be a good first guitar. Fender created the Stratocaster and owns that name. Fender has the Squier name for inexpensive guitars. There is a wide range of quality in the Squier line. The lower end include the SE (I think it only comes in a starter pack), Bullet and Affinity. The upper end has the Squier Standard and Classic Vibe. Both of those are very good guitars. The Classic Vibe has pickups with Alinco magnets, just like the Fender American Strat. (Not the same pickups, but the same magnets) The upper end of the Squier line is close in quality to the lower end of the Fender line. The Fender Standard Strat (MIM) is the most common of the Fender line. It is also near the bottom of the Fender line. It is a very good guitar.
As much as I like the Fender Standard MIM Strat, I would suggest a first guitar should be maybe a Squier Standard or a Classic Vibe. Those are very good guitars and you will not need to replace them in a few months. If you plan to gig with this 1st guitar, then get the MIM Strat. It will hold up better to the rigors of gigging. Gigging takes a tole on gear. If you play at home or jam with friends, the Squier is going to sound just fine. It would hold up to the rigors of gigging quite as well. But you are not going to be tossing your gear around, having it bump around in the van, have it dropped while setting up and the like.
I would suggest looking for a used guitar for a couple reasons. No matter how much you spend, you can get a higher quality guitar used as opposed to new. A used guitar sells for around 1/2 the new price (at least on modern guitars). Secondly, there were some better quality guitars made a few years back. Fender started making Squier guitars in Japan. Those are outstanding guitars. A used MIJ Squier may sell for $250 to $350. Yes a 20 year old Squier can bring that much. Later the Squier line was made in Korea. While not quite as good as MIJ, the MIK Squier gutiars are still very good. Both of those are a lot better than the modern low end Squiers made in China or Indonesia. Sometimes you see a MIK or MIJ Squier sell cheap. So there are bargains out there if you watch.
Amps. Most beginners under estimate the importance of the amp and speakers in how they will sound. You only sound as good as your speakers no matter what guitar you play. I suggest you stay away from the starter packs because the amps are lousy. I do not recommend any small practice amp (10 to 25 watts) because they have small speakers (6 or 8 inch usually) that make you sound thin and tinny. Not a pleasant tone. Look for a 1x12 combo amp. Combo amp has the amplifier and the speaker(s) in the same cabinet. 1x12 means it as one 12 inch speaker. The larger speaker will give you a richer fuller sound. Also because the amp is more powerful, it will handle distortion and gain better (will not run out of headroom). I have never hear a lousy speaker in a 1x12 by Fender, Vox, Marshall, Peavey, Crate or Line 6 . They all sound slightly different, but all are good. A used 1x12 will sell for about the same price as a new small practice amp, but the 1x12 will sound so much better.
If I had to recommend one amp for a beginner, it would be the Line 6 Spider 30 watt 1x12 combo. It is easy to use. It is versatile. It has built in effects such as reverb, distortion, delay and chorus so you won't need to buy pedals for the basic effects. The 12 inch Celestion speaker has a decent tone. It is not expensive new. There are usually used ones available so you might find a bargain.
Later,