Its all about the pickups.
The wood will give you some tone and sustain, but unless your recording at a top notch studio, you won't notice
Playing live forget about it, all you need is a comfortable neck and good pickups
In my setup i have a $150 yamahaa guitar that i have had for 20 yrs (geez i'm getting old) I dropped a kick ass duncan in it, and its a monster I use it for super low tuning with crazy heavy strings.
most important thing on a guitar is the neck, and action. (at best settings) which is why you generally don't buy guitars over the web. Unles your getting a fine tuned hand made american or otherwise guitar, they come off a factory line, each piece of wood is different, check for warping, feel ect ect.
Your much much better off finding a nice epiphone in a music store then taking a chance on a 'rep"
buy a 200 guitar, strip the paint, go crazy with it.
When i was a kid the guitarist in my band's father was a vp at Kramer. They used to go into the factory and come out with a pile of parts that we would make into guitars.
ahhh, the good ole days