Well if I were you I'd do the following.
Get an Epiphone of good quality(talkin 'bout woods here)-(with a 3A or 4A flametop
)
give the same amount of money you gave for the Epi and change the bridge and the keys with Schaller ones (or sth of equal or better quality) change the pickups with Seymour Duncan or Dimarzio of your choice, change the plastic nut with a one made of bone.
If you make those changes -and maybe even more- to the Epi you 'll have a guitar thats a lot cheaper than a Gibson and eventhough plays like one...!!!
Well...if you actually want to make it better, don't get a flame top on an epi unless you're 100% sure that it's actually a maple cap of considerable thickness, not just a veneer (which almost all epi's are).
If you're dead set on an epi, go into every guitar store you can find and play them all unplugged and see which one sounds best. Buy it. Take it to a decent tech, strip the Polyurethene lacquer about 5mm thick and oil the body. Replace the bridge, the pots, the pickup switch, the jack socket, get a graph-tech nut and some grovers or high ratio schallers...then you'll have a decent guitar. Oh and get sopme new pickups.
By the time you've done this it'll probably have cost the same as a new Gibson though, and you'll still have a gay looking headstock.
Alternatively, buy a Dean.