I have been told that the
Ibanez rg321 and
Yamaha pacifica 112 are great and cheap guitars for beginners. I have a
Epiphone Les Paul special 2, which is about the cheapest LP-style guitar you can buy, and i think that it is OK. Maybe for beginners SC-style guitar is easier to play, perhaps because the width of the fretboard.
And a great beginner amp is
Roland Microcube , you won't play with that in a stadium but its clearly sufficent for practicing. And it can be powered with batteries so you can play with it in the campfire. It has a good distortion also.
I have modeling guitar processor
Digitech RP80 also, it's cool for testing different effects and getting some distortion to my headphones. But mostly it is just a toy.
I think beginner should get the best gear that your money can buy. And also the one that fits your hands like it should. I took a 2 year playing pause after the first excitement, because my LP was just so hard to play. I don't know if the fault was mine or guitar, but nowadays i have learned to play with it somehow.
The recommended purchase of acoutic guitar is also worth thinking, most of the time i find myself playing my electric without any amplification.