I know that had I not gotten a good piece of equipment. I would probably not have stuck with it.
Epiphone are not necessarily cheapies. Some are quite nice, unlike squire.
My onlt point in that is that there is not much more disheartening than getting decent and poor quality stifling your mojo.

I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. Edgar Allan Poe