Rory:
For a gig worthy guitar, check out some Takamines--my friend has one that I'm really jealous of; a very full tone for a great price.

For a more pricey guitar, check out Larivees--they're made in Canada. They have a really distinct tone to them--almost trebly, but still warm. Then of course there are always Martin guitars (approved by Eric Johnson and Eric Clapton, if that's worth anything). Only thing is that Martins have pretty flat fretboard radii, and there have been rumors that their quality has been declining over the past ten years.

Whatever you do, I really think instead of buying an acoustic electric, you should really invest in a straight acoustic and just mic it into a PA at your gigs. You could pick up your own Shure SM57 (or is it SM58, I forget) mic at as good or better a price as for electronics to make the acoustic an acoustic-electric.