I've 3 les pauls and 1 strat....that tells a story for me. You can turn the vol down on the Les Paul and get a nice clean tone. I think people tend to have the vol on their guitars full up too much of the time, which does not help. Regarding the action on a LP, I've no problem at all. Strats are great guitars but you should buy what you feel good with, and for me that's a Les Paul. SG's are ace and very much in at the minute, so expect to pay top dollar for one. For 500 quid you would be better going for a nice Tokia LP. Of course you could get away from the household names and go for something different. Robin or Moon both are great guitars for that money if you can find them, plus you won't see every other band at the gig with one. cheers