i've been rocking a mexican strat for over a decade now and it was fantastic for getting old school hendrix style tone and action back in the day. hell you might even be able to score a little marshall combo amp to round out the package just under your budget.
quite frankly i wouldn't bother with gibson at your price point. you might be able to find a few models for under a grand but it will likely be a limited selection with some sort of 'minor' defect. i'd look at higher end epiphones instead.
the epiphone dot guitars seem to have been gaining a lot of popularity lately. not really sure what the deal is with them, they're like a budget version of the gibson es-335. i would DEFINITELY try one out for your style.
epiphone also has a les paul model that would fit in your price range nicely that looks just as good as the real thing.
PRS guitars are really nice but the only one i've ever tried is my cousin's custom-22. let's put it this way, when he offered to sell it to me at the 'family price' of 2 grand last year i was seriously considering it until my job got outsourced to india. if their lower end models are made with the same quality and care as his, then you're laughing if you find one that sounds right to your ears.
ibanez has some nice hollowbodies too, haven't tried them but i really like the look of the artcore series. i'll let GB fill in the details on these.
and if those don't float your boat and you want something that looks pretty freaking unique take a look at eastwood guitars.
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one other thing to keep in mind is that hollow bodies have a reputation for causing the bad kind of feedback (as in the painful squealing kind) when pushed too far. you run into any issues like this rezz?