I like modding up cheaper guitars personally. I've got three electrics (plus a bass and 2 acoustics) in the house:
Musicyo Kramer Striker Custom FR-424CM with PATB-2 and Full Shred pickups.
Casino Strat copy, holoflashed with Hotrails and Fasttrack2.
Mutt Lesocaster made from a spare generic strat body and a hohner neck. Hardtail, with Humbucker from Hell and Super Distortion pickups.
The Kramer I can't put down and cost me less than AU$500 all up, including shipping from the US. The Casino has a great neck and with the pickup upgrade sounds fantastic (I got both pickups for $60 inc shipping and paid $50 cash after a trade-in for the Casino). The Lesocaster is just a good all round guitar, great clean tones in the neck and a raunchy rock sound in the bridge.
Personally, I'd rather have some guitars with personality that I've had some input into than a $1500+ off the shelf fender/ibanez/gibson and I couldn't give a rat's arse what the musos in the audience think. If you can play and the guitar allows you to do that, then that's what will impress...
Until it was stolen, my favorite guitar for about 13 years was an Aria Pro II SL strat that I had floyded with a Dimarzio Megadrive in the bridge. It was sanded back to the plywood and ran straight into a Marshall Valvestate(!) via a tuner pedal and crybaby, and I got nothing but compliments about the sound of that thing (rock type band).
Maybe I'm a cheapskate, but I just can't justify more than AUD$1k on a guitar in most cases and I also think that if I'm paying that much for a guitar it shoudn't really require a pickup change. Lately I've been thinking I'd like a really nice (expensive) guitar and not worry about a bunch of cheapos but the cheapos are more fun to play with. And in the case of my three, they're punching well above their weight in playability and sound.
I'd love to spring for a nice S series, but.. I've got some ideas for a project guitar in the works...