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It depends on what your goals are.
If you are made happy by having a pure quest for tone, go for it. Everything does make a difference and there is a lot of pleasure to be had playing and owning lots of different gear.
If you want to perform and write music I think there is worthwhile knowledge in understanding as much about music as you can. Not just guitar gear but things about the instruments your bandmates play with too. And beyond that - what the soundman does live and why, and what the producer does in the studio.
Knowing more can help you develop more as a musician.
But I think the wisdom comes from putting that knowledge into content creation and/or performance. At this point gear selection is tool selection. Unless you can afford one of everything you're best of buying the best choices for what you mostly need 9/10 of the time, and using knowledge and what you have to achieve the rest as best you can.
Maybe the obsessiveness can't be separated from the creativity though. I lose sleep to worrying about guitar gear all the time. Not even a joke, I stayed up late recently after finding a crazy deal on something I'd really like to own, but know full well I don't like as much as something else I already do own. It was cheap for what it was but it wasn't 'cheap' and also it wasn't part of the gear 'Roadmap'. Not buying it was pretty difficult.
I wish I could just focus on making music instead of having 'what if' tone anxiety. I don't think obsessing over the 'what ifs' is healthy. I want my gear to work for me, not to work for the gear.
Why because I cannot tell what species of wood a guitar body may or may not be made of ?
then prove you can tell the difference ? I have had all the classic guitars vintage and modern and after 35 years of gigging I can tell guitars apart but not what they are made of. And I doubt very much neither can you, care to prove me wrong ?
Trouble is on most forums like this you have a few honest guys, and some guys who think they know the difference between two species of wood by sound in a badly made video. I defy anyone to try a blindfold test using different guitars to say what models they are and what wood the body is made from.
I think people can overstate influence of woods and such. Example - maple makes things bright, but I always mention a Les Paul raw power I played that had a solid maple body, maple neck, maple board and was significantly warmer sounding (amplified or acoustic) than your average Les Paul. But you can generalise.
And as for saying all that matters is the string and pickup... Well, try a jazzmaster with proper jazzmaster bridge. You'll hear some overtones, bright, high pitched noises. That's from behind the bridge, thanks to the relatively shallow break angle. Mute that, and play it again - notice how different the amplified sound is. Some of that overtone gets into the main string - mute that part and strum behind the bridge if you don't believe me, but you won't like what you hear...
Point is, the way the strings vibrate ACOUSTICALLY must make a difference to the tone. Try picking with fingertips then a pick - that doesn't change the note, nor the pickup, but even with identical volume, the tone will be different because the string moves in a different way. It's audible through an amp.
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tele`s
Name the guitar, 3 guitars which is the tele ?
X_Xif you had a group of guitar makers in a bar, it would be a very different conversation to a group of players in a bar discussing the same thing...
make a couple of hundred guitars before you decide your final position in this argument... then when you have made a couple of hundred more...............
think again.
The young do not know enough to be prudent, therefore they attempt the impossible - and achieve it, generation after generation.
So guys who just spend their time actually playing guitars don't know shit? Surely it's the playing of the instrument which reveals the results? What's bizarre about that angle is most material fads aren't pushed by builders, they are pushed by mega-rich famous players saying 'I wouldn't play anything that wasn't Brazilian Rosewood.' etc.
Yes but builders (whether guitars or amps etc) build for and to a market. If they understood some special formula of what made great tone they would be rich just selling the concept. Still though players develop (rightly or wrongly) favouritism for particular materials, shapes and designs. Very few of those rich and famous guitarists who could have anything made to 'the ultimate spec' do so. Instead they try a multitude of instruments and bond with the one with which the sum of all the parts works for them.
I understand the point your are making but I don't feel the above example really works in a practical world, or is comparable to the original question. There is no argument about the effect of different circuits amps. The guys mentioned above may work on hundreds of amps each year. The don't take each one of a gig with it. The don't take each one in to a recording session. It would be the equivalent of saying that a mechanic's word would hold ultimate sway over your choice of car rather than your own experience and other feedback.
Take ICBM as an example. A phenomenal knowledge of all things amp like. What does he own? Mesa Trem-O-Verb (OK ICBM, it's two I know). Is that because he has worked on so many amps and he believe it uses the ultimate materials? No, it's because that's what works for him. Guys don't post on here saying "ICBM, tell me what amp to buy?". They go and try them and look for feedback from others.
I wasn't agreeing or disagreeing with Jaden's viewpoint - in fact he didn't state one. I agree with the point "this is an idiotic argument that will never be resolved", but I do find the statement "make a couple of hundred guitars before you decide your final position in this argument... then when you have made a couple of hundred more..............." as being the only way to understand guitars bizarre. The truth is there are guys on here who have plenty of time behind the steering wheel and fully grasp the concept of what difference changes make to performance and handling.
With anything as subjective as tone the only person whose experience you can trust is your own.
Leo Fender made 1,000s does that make him know more? he couldn`t actually play !
And even when he got it right he still kept changing the woods... Why ? because they were cheaper.
I have made many identical guitars and then applied different finishes / pickups / etc etc...
then I have made a near identical guitar and changed the fingerboard, or body, or top etc etc..
then I took the time to test them all in a very very quiet room, usually around midnight, acoustically and electrically.
this kind of process does give you more of an insight than an average player gets..
The young do not know enough to be prudent, therefore they attempt the impossible - and achieve it, generation after generation.