[Helm]

Basically you have to find what sort of neck suits your fret hand. Some people like the curved neck, Ibanez style while others (mostly shredders) like the clean ruler-fine Jackson fret neck. It also depends on what size strings you'll be fitting on the guitar. There's absolutely no sense in fitting a Jackson with anything thicker than 10 size strings, because Jacksons are not made for chugging, they're made to rend. I like the Gibson neck, but my hand finds the Ibanez neck more to it's liking but I guess I'll outgrow it after a few years.

Also, if you're thinking of palm-muting efficiently, you have to look into what sort of (I don't know what's it called in english) umm... 'rider'(direct greek translation, heh. It's where the strings meet with the body of the guitar after the pickups) suits your palm-muting style. I can't palm mute on Jackson guitars for shit whereas I find it very natural on Ibanez or ESP guitars. But that's sorta nitpicking because I guess you can retrain your hand after all.

Basically what you need to do is go in a decent-sized music store where the employer you get isn't a complete jerk and tell him you're trying to find the style of guitar that suits you and sit down and play them all. Every single one you can try, you should. Eventually you'll fall in love with a model or two, and then you should cross-reference the best quality model of the same line with the maximum amount of money you can afford to spend and buy that. Treat it with care. In fact, ask the clerk to ring up some cleaning materials and a few other sets of strings (try some different sizes from niners up to 11 to see what works for you) as long as all different sorts of picks. Always put back into guitar case after you're done playing it.

I gave you more information than you needed.