The sound of an electric guitar even in the simplest rigs, is an ecosystem of moving and changing parts. After your brain says “power chord”, your body has to perform the task. Most likely you are holding a pick, which affects your tone. You’re probably holding down a note on the fretboard, which may be maple, a layer of rosewood on maple, or something else. No electric guitar has a mandatory set of strings, so you have a choice to make there too. You have a world of options in every direction.
If you’re wondering why there aren’t more A:B comparisons of, for example, Strats and Les Pauls, part of the reason is that great rigs are often tailored to the specific guitar. At the very least, the pedals and amp may need to be adjusted when switching, at which point its hard to tell which thing you’re hearing in the A:B comparison.
Best Practices
What can we glean from all this? Change your strings. Okay, that’s a metaphor. Make an investigation of the tone of your strings–the gauge, the materials, the action, the age, and the tuning–part of the fun. Then, investigate everything else in the same level of detail, especially things like picks and pick-up height, where price isn’t much of an issue. If you can avoid hurrying past this part, it will pay off big later.
