need help on buying a guitar from the US

I'm about to get an electric guitar from the US. I have three questions-

1) How does a 24 fret guitar compare with a 22?

2) How does ESP compare with Kramer?

3) What about customs? I read somewhere that stuff below Rs 25000 does not need to pay duty. How true is that?

Any tips on avoiding the eagle glare of the customs officer would be greatly appreciated. There must be a bunch of you who've done this before.

Also, if you guys have any other brands you can recommend, it'd be great.
My budget-10 -11k.
The kinda music i wanna play-Petrucci, Satch, Vai, jeff beck, any instumental stuff.

Thanks!
RK

 

1> 24 fret
2> ESP

thats what i wud suggest..
satch, vai, they both use ibanez..

 

Oops.....just saw your budget.

For your budget, I'd recommend the KH-202 (Kirk Hammet signature series) because the M-II is waay out of your budget. The KH-202 is a good guitar similar in features to the actual KH-2. The pickups on the 202 kinda suck though. You might want to replace them with 81's.

One of my friends owns the M-II and it's a dream to play. Even better than my Ibanez RG370DX.

EDIT: I just checked up the KH-202 on MusiciansFriend and it's listed for 449 USD.

 

24 fret ESP Dave Musatine Series RULZ..

 

This is one option that I have not considered. Is it possible for me to get an okay guitar from the US around 15 K budget? Can I get it couriered to me?

 

Courier will cost you more than 6-7 thousand rupees..

 

About the 24 frets..... sometimes sustain in these guitars aint as good as with 22 fret guitars.....n yeah about ESP Vs Kramer...... i'd probably say ESP