Don't forget that the electronics and the setup on any electric can make it sound good or bad depending. Obviously the body material and the bridge are fixed--can't change what they do to the tone. I recently did a full setup check on my Strat, adjusted the pickup heights, and semi-fixed the bridge, and it sounds like a different guitar than it used to. Strings can also have a huge impact on the tone, depending on gauge. Last, the thing I had the hardest time understanding at first is that what you hear on recorded music is its sometimes heavily engineered in the studio. Beyond merely the amp, stereo effects, delay, compression, and how the tone gets mixed all have a very large impact on how you'll perceive the "quality" of the guitar.
Remember, EVH played a pieced-together Franken-Strat with a couple of pedals and got tone that others are still trying to emulate. I've formed the opinion over the years that a cheaper guitar with awesome electronics and a good setup can sound just as good as a very expensive "stock" guitar. Remember that a lot of what you're paying for with LPS, for example, is the labor it takes to make them, and the wicked hot appointments (inlays, etc), rather than what you can make it sound like once you plug it into a Marshall head in a studio. Another good example is Jack White. He recorded that first White Stripes album with some plastic-body dime store guitar and I think he still plays it today.
