Good input. I actually already knew about the Rick and plan to buy one at some point, but I'm not sure how we'll I'd work for the lead stuff. Maybe the Tele would work better; I hadn't even considered it.

As for the different styles of guitar, I was thinking I'd pickup up a "Rock" guitar right now (hence the interest in Humbuckers), and then a "texture" guitar at a later point. True that a Strat would probably do everything well enough, so maybe that's my best initial step.

I've now talked my office into going to look at guitars, so that's where we're headed now!