Beginner Advice: What's the difference between all the companies?

A very common mistake beginners make is buying a guitar or starter pack that does not suit their interests. A perfect example of this is someone who listens to alternative rock and buys a B.C. Rich guitar just because it looks cool. The guitarist will later hate the guitar because it sounds terrible for alternative rock, and, in most cases, they will lose their drive to continue playing. An easy way to avoid this situation is to research what companies are suited to the style of music you wish to play.

Here is a list of popular companies and what music styles their starter packs work best for :
*Note* This does not apply to guitars outside of starter packs

Epiphone by Gibson - Rock, Alternative, Blues
Squier by Fender     - Rock, Alternative, Punk
Ibanez                     - Rock, Blues, Metal
B.C. Rich                - Metal, Thrash, Death
Dean                       - Metal, Thrash, Rock
LTD                        - Metal, Thrash, Death
Jackson                   - Rock, Metal, Thrash
Schecter                  - Rock, Metal, Blues

Now when buying a guitar that won't be coming in a starter pack, it's best to look at reviews and research what style of music it suits best. Just because the starter packs by a company work best for rock and blues does not mean the $600 guitar that you want by the same company is made for rock and blues. When researching it, you can end up finding out that the guitar you want is made for metal, which may or may not be the genre of music you wish to play. Guitar manufacturers make sure that there are specialized guitars for each genre of music, which means no company only makes guitars for metal or rock or whatever you can think of.