I'll take the amp. I saw Brad Paisley play a POS guitar at a charity event through one of his Dr.Z amps and it sounded amazing! In fact, if you closed your eyes, there wasn't much difference between the guitar being auctioned off and one of his Crook Tele's. A great guitarist gets most of his/her tone from their hands and the way they play as opposed to what they play.....just my two cents!

Great amp is essential...most guys will buy a fantastic guitar like a 52 AVRI and play it through a POS amp then go and change the pups, bridge etc etc thinking it will make their guitar sound better...amp is key IMO
ABS

Hi. got a good story about tone guitars and amps.i met a bass player by the name of warren ward about ten years ago he played the pants off a crappy old sqiuer mustang.He was in the band blackfeather in the 70s that had a hit song bop bop bopin the blues its on youtube if you look for it. anyway i have an old fi sonic valve amp aus made and we played at a few jam nights together. one night a bloke wanted to play his bass old warren made that thnig sing. by the way it had a spilt heck to.anyway this bloke got on the bass and it sounded like crap. i think tone is in them fingers on that night anyway. Warren was the bset he taught me lots of stuff about playing.R.I.P. old mate.