Great to hear that you are having so much fun with the new camera Matt.
Reinardina, why not just go for the DSLR anyway, the starter ones are not very much more than a decent bridge these days and you need not worry about focusing, they're all very good at autofocus; I generally only use manual focus with the macro lens in low light.
As for price, I mooch about the French equivalent of Cash Converters, mainly looking for musical stuff, but I noticed yesterday that they had a
Pentax K100D*and kit lens for €100, so why not nip down to the secondhand store and see if you can pick a DSLR up for a song to play around with? The Nikons and Canons they had were somewhat newer and therefore dearer, but still good value.
Or go new for a little more. The EOS 1100D, Nikon D3100, and the Sony Alpha A58 (OK the Sony is more) are all around £300 with a kit lens. The rather odd, but mirrorless Pentax K-01 is also around that figure without a lens and the same sensor as the K5, but again secondhand lenses are cheap and plentiful. Or what about one of the smaller mirrorless cameras from Sony (as used by Abers), Panasonic or Olympus. There are simply loads to chose from and all will have better detail and definition than your bridge offers. Personally I rather fancy one of the Abers machines. But there is a new guitar being saved up for ahead of that

But don't sell the bridge - you'll probably regret it!
*only 6.1mp, and the autofocus will be slow by modern standards, but it would give someone the feel.