Well, the reason I bought the Japanese Fender, was because it was the cheapest playable guitar they had. The Gibson amp was also dirt cheap because no serious 'heavy metal dude' would look twice at that relic with only 20W. I, however, am not a 'heavy metal dude'
All in all I'd say it cost me about 700? over a 1 year period. Plus a fortune in strings. Now, THAT is expensive.
Beside, Brian May made his own guitar from scratch... That's sound!